




TRAD 

SECRBTS 



OR 



Practical Hints, 



OVER 

600 RARE AND VALUABLE RECEIPTS. 

FOR 

Gold and Silver Plating, Nickel Plating, Soldering Tempering, Plating with 
Gold Amalgam. Copper Plate Etching, Silvering Glass, Mending Cellu- 
loid, Clean.sing Silverware or Brass, Etching on Glass, Silvering 
Mixture, Refining Gold, Soldering Tortoi'^e Shell, Silver 
Solution lor Eletrotype.Po;ishing To' toise Shell, 
Enameling, Drilling Glass, Restoring the 
Color ot Gold after Soldering, 
Gold Laquer, Varnishes, 
Cements, Soap, 
Perfumery, 
Paints, Removing Stains, Coloring or Dying Silks, Feathers, Woolen or Cotton 
goods, Cure for Foutrot in Shepp, Scratches or Greased Heal on 
Horses, etc., etc. And many other valuable 
receipts, the ingredients of which 
can be had of any 
druggist. 




An}/ infrhtfjnient in reprinting this book 

will he prosecuted to the full ej-tent 

of file law. 



Entered accordjng to Act of Congress, in the year 
1883, by John G.^'ickers, in the office the Librarian 
of Congress at Washington. All rights reserved. 




Trade Secrets; 



OR 



Practical Hints 



OVER 



600 RARE AND VALUABLE RECEIPTS 




FOR 



Gold and Silver Plating, Nickel Plating, Soldering Tempering, Plating Tfith 
Gold Amalgam, Copper Plate Etching, Silvering Glass, Mending Cellu- 
loid, Cleansing Silverware or Brass, Etching on Glass, Silveriag 
Mixture, Refining Gold, Soldering Tortoise Shell, Silver 
Solution for Eletrotype.Poiishlng Tortoise Shell, 
Enameling, Drilling Glass, Restoring the 
Color of Gold after Soldering, 
Gold Laquer, Varnishes, 
Cements, Soap, 
Perfumery, 
Paints, Removing Stains, Coloring or Dying Silks, Feathers, Woolen or Cotton 
goods, Cure for Footrot in Sheep, Scratches or Greased Heal on 
Horses, etc., etc. And many other valuable 
receipts, the ingredients of which 
can be had of any 
druggist. 



p 






TRADE SECRETS. 

SILVERSMITHS' AND PLATERS' DEPARTMENT. 



To Remove Soft Solder from Jewelry.— Green 
copperas, 2 oz. ; saltpeter, 1 oz. ; water, 10 oz. Re- 
duce the two salts each to a fine powder ; add them to 
the water and boil in a cast-iron pan for some time ; 
then set aside to cool. Take the crystals, by, pour- 
ing off the liquid, and dissolve 1 ounce of them m 
8 ozs. of muriatic acid or in that proportion. To use, 
take 1 oz. of this solution and add to it 4 ozs. of boil- 
ing water in a glass or porcelain dish, and boil the 
articles in it. In a short time, the worst cases of 
soft solder will be entirely freed from the article, with- 
out change in the color of the work. This process is 
recommended for all qualities of gold work, and also 
for silver goods. 

Reviver of Old Jewelry. — Dissolve sal-amoniac in 
urine, and put the jewehy in it for a short time ; 
take it out and rub with chamois leather, and it will 
appear as bright as new. 

Nitrate of Silver. — Silver coin, 3 oz.; nitric acid, 2 
oz.; dilute with water, 4 oz.; heat by a sand-bath until 
ebullition ceases and the water is expelled, then pour 
into molds and keep from the light. 

To Copper the Surface of Iron Wire, or Iron, 
Steel, etc., take rain water, Ih gal., sulphate of copper, 
J lb. First have the article perfectl}^ clean, then 
wash with the above solution. 

Gold Lacuer. — Put into a clean four gallon tin,, 
one-half pound of ground turmeric, three-fourths of an 



4 TRADE SECRETS. 

ounce of gamboge, one and three-fourth pounds of 
powdered gum sandarach, one-half pound of shellac, 
and one gallon of spirits of wine. Shake until dis- 
solved, then strain, and add one-half pint of turpen- 
tine varnish, well mixed. 

Very Fine Bronze for Brass.— One-half pound 
muriatic acid, one-fourth pound white arsenic ; dis- 
solve in an earthen vessel, and proceed as in the usual 
way. 

To Polish Steel.^ — Take crocus of oxide of tin, and 
graduate it, and apply it to the steel by means of a 
piece of soft iron, or bell metal, applied with flour of 
emery. The German mode of polishing steel is per- 
formed by the use of crocus on a buff wheel. Nothing 
can exceed the surpassing beauty imparted by steel, 
or even cast iron, by this process. 

Soap for Jewelers. — English silver soap, (with 
which silver articles, with the use of brushes, can be 
very handsomely cleaned), is manufactured by heat- 
ing one part ordinary w^hite soap with one part water, 
until a glutinous fluid is produced; three parts 
washed chalk are stirred in, and the mass is left to 
solidify. 

Dressing- off Coins for Engraving.— -Take a round 
stick, about the size of a chair rung, for dimes, and a 
piece of an old broom-stick for quarters, half-dollars, 
etc., and cut or saw about six inches long ; put some 
shellac or ceiling w^ax on the flat end ; with the blow- 
pipe melt it well ; now place the article upon it and 
blow a blaze again upon the dime until it becomes 
cemented to the end of the stick ; let it cool when you 
can file with the coarsest file, or polish on the lathe 
without the article coming off; be careful not to file 
too hard, as heating in filing would make it slip. 
Dampen with cold water. 



TRADE SECRETS. 9 

To Clean Watch Brushes wa&h them in water 
impregnated with soda. 

Imitation Silver. — Silver, 3 oz; nickel 1 oz. and 11 
pwts. ; copper, 2 oz. 9 pwts. ; spelter, 10 pwts. 

Gold Platingf Without a Battery.—Take a two- 
and-a-half gold piece and put it into a mixture of 1 
oz. nitric acid and 4 oz. muriatic acid, use a glass ves- 
sel ; when it is all cut, dissolve one-half oz. of sulphate 
of potash in 1 pint of pure rain water, and mix with 
the gold solution, stirring well ; then let settle, and 
wash the gold until no acid is tasted, by touching the 
tongue to the gold. Now dissolve 1 oz. cyanide, of 
potassium in one pint of pure rain water, to which 
add the gold, and it is ready for use. Clean the arti- 
cle to be plated, well, and then suspend it in the 
solution with a small strip of zinc. 

Silver Plating Without a Battery is done the 
same as gold plating, except you use silver coin, and 
salt instead of cyanide of Potassium ; add salt until 
the silver will deposit on the article to be plated, 
which is all that is required. 

To Reduce Hair Springs. — Immerse the spring a 
few seconds in nitric acid, 3 or 4 drops to 1 teaspoon- 
full of water. By this way you can reduce them to 
any extent ; after washing and drying the spring it 
should be dipped in oil. 

Soft Soldering Fluid. — Take a small phial and 
fill it half full of Muriatic acid, add all the zinc it 
will dissolve, then add about one-half as much 
rain-water as their is acid, and it is ready for use. 

True Imitation of Gold. — It not only resembles 
gold in color, but also in specific gravity and duc- 
tility. Platinum, 16 parts ; copper, 7 parts ; zinc, 
1 part ; put in a crucible, cover with charcoal 
powder, and melt into a mass. 



t) TRADE SECRETS. 

Best Imitation Silrer Known.— Copper, J bz.; 
brass, 2 ozs.; coin silver (pure silver is better) 3 
ozs.; bismuth, 2 ozs.; saltpetre, 2 ozs.; common salt, 
1 oz.; arsenic, 1 oz.; potash, 1 oz.; melt in a cruci- 
ble with powdered charcoal. This compound was 
used by a German chemist for unlawful purposes, 
and it was so perfect that he was never discovered. 

Green Gold. — Take gold 1 oz. 10 dwts; saltpetre; 1 
oz. 4 dwts sal-ammoniac ; 1 oz. 4 dwts; verdigris, 18 
dwts. 

Silver Solder — Easy Flowing —Three dwt. coin 
silver ; 1 dwt. sheet brass. Melt the silver alone 
with borax ; have the brass cut in narrow strips, 
and the silver in a molten stat6 ; then drop in the 
brass; shake it until the brass is mixed with the 
silver; and just before taking oflf, add a small piece 
of zinc about the size of your little finger nail. This 
golder flows easy ; it will stand chilling in the 
pickle and retain its toughness ; is white enough 
to use on the finest of silver, and is suitable for all 
kinds of jobbing. 

Gold Solder. — Instead of reducing the quality of 
your gold with copper, silver, or brass, use the silver 
solder, made in the above way. Saj' 3 parts gold 
to 1 part of silver solder for fine work, but for 
ordinary work I take about equal parts coin and 
silver solder. This makes a very easy running 
solder. It matters not if the work is to be bright 
or colored, it always comes out satisfactory, and for 
repairing, it beats the w^orld. I have used the 
above solders for over eight years, and never found 
them wanting. 

Gold Varnish — Very Fine. — Dissolve seedlack, 
sandarach, mustic, of each 4 parts ; gamboge, 1 part; 
dragon's blood, ^ part ; white turpentine, 3 parts ; 
termeric, 2 parts ; bruised with alcohol, 60 parts. 



TRADE SECRETS. 7 

Polishing' Powder for Gold and Silver. — Rock 
alum, calcined and finely pulverized, 5 parts ; 
powdered chalk, 1 part ; mix and apply with a dry 
brush or soft rag ; this is splendid for show cases. 

Silvering Small Iron Articles.— Suspend them in 
diluted sulphuric acid until the iron shows a bright, 
clean surface. After rinsing in pure water the}*" are 
placed in a bath of a mixed solution of sulphate of zinc, 
sulphate of copper and cyanide of potassium, of about 
equal parts, and there remain until they receive a 
bright coating of brass. Then they are transferred to 
a bath of nitrate of silver, cyanide of potassium, and 
sulphate of soda, in which they quickly receive a coat- 
ing of silver. 

Ornamental Designs on Gold and Silver. — Sketch 
on the silver a monogram, or any other design, with 
a sharp lead pencil, then place the article in a gold 
solution, with the battery in good order, and in a short 
time all the parts not sketched with the pencil will 
be covered with gold. The black lead is easily re- 
moved by the fingers, and the silver ornament dis- 
closed. A gold ornament may be produced by revers- 
ing the process. 

Easy Flowing Gold Solder. — Five Karet— Two and 
a half dwt. gold coin, five dwt. silver coin, two and a 
half dwt. copper, one quarter dwt. brass. Eight Karet 
— Nine and a half dwt. gold coin, eleven and a half 
dwt. silver coin, five dwt. copper, one-half pwt. brass. 
Eleven Karet — five dwt. gold coin, three dwt. silver coin, 
one-half dwt. copper and one-fourth dwt, zinc. 

Albata Metal. — Nickel, 4 parts ; copper, 20 parts 
zinc, 16 parts. 

To obtain a pure color on articles gilt by galvan- 
ism, add the point of a knife full of bicarbonate 



5 TRADE SECRETS. 

of soda, and a clear and handsome gilding will be ob* 
tained. Keep the solution well filtered. 

To Whiten Iron. — To render iron as white, and as 
beautiful as silver, take ammonia cal salt in powder, 
and mix it with an equal quantity of quick lime. 
Dissolve in cold water and mix well. When done, 
immerse the red-heated article in this bath, and it 
will become as white as silver. Do not burn the ar- 
ticle by overheating. 

Sweaty Hands. — Immerse your hands in freshly 
drawn well or spring w^ater, and leave them therein 
until chilled. The evil of perspiring hands may thus 
be removed in about two weeks. The gentleman who 
recommends the above treatment says, that he has 
handled polished steel on the hottest summer day 
since, without even leaving the imprint of his fingers 
thereon. 

Soft Solder. — Pure tin, two parts ; lead, one part. 
Melt and mix well together, and roll into sheets for 
use. 

To Electro Plate Soft Solder.— Take nitric acid, 
2 oz. ; water, 4 oz. ; copper, 2 oz. ; . in small flat pieces. 
When the copper has all dissolved, the solution is 
ready for use. To apply it, take up a few drops b}' 
means of a camel-hair brush, and apply it to the de- 
sired part, then touch it with a bright piece of steel, 
and there will be instantaneously a film of copper de- 
posited. If the copper has not spread all over the 
desired part, the process should be repeated when depo- 
sition in the plating bath will take place, with per- 
fect success. A good mixture for effecting the same 
result, may be made by dissolving verdigris in vine- 
gar. 

Testing Silver Wares.— Take nitric acid, 3 oz. ; 
water, 1 oz. ; bichromate of potash, ^ oz. Reduce the 



TRADE SECRETS. 9 

potash to a powder, and mix it well with the acid 
and water. Use the solution cold, and place in a 
stoppered glass bottle. Rub a file over some obscure 
part of the surface, and apply the liquid to that 
part. If the article is silver there will appear a 
clean blood red mark. Upon platinum the test liquid 
has no action. On German silver a brown mark ap- 
pears ; on Brittania metal a black mark is produced. 

Modelling Wax. — 1 pound white wax ; J oz. tur- 
pentine; J oz. hogs lard; IJ oz. zinnabar ; J oz. white 
lead. 

A Splendid Varnish for dials of clocks, watches, 
etc., may be prepared by dissolving bleached shellac 
in the purest alcohol. It affords the same resistance 
to atmospheric influence that common shellac does, 
when used as a coating on brass. 

Protecting Silverware from Tarnishing.— Tarn- 
ishing may completely be prevented by first heating 
the ware, and afterward anointing it with a coating 
of collodion, thinly diluted with alcohol, laid on with 
a camel's hair brush. This coating dries at once 
and forms a very thin, transparent film, which com- 
pletely protects the silver, and which, if necessary, 
is quickl}'- removed by hot water. This method is 
much used in English silverware stores to protect 
the ware against tarnishing. 

To Stain Horn Black. — Immerse it in a cold pre- 
pared solution of 120 parts mercury ; 120 parts nitric 
acid ; and 500 parts water ; rinse it well, after 12 
hours; and put it for an hour or two into a solu- 
tion of 15 parts sulphurate of potash, and 500 parts 
water ; next rinse. To give horn a dark color, polish 
it with tin ashes and oil. 

Varnish for Writing on Glass, may be made of 
500 grains ether ; 30 grains sandarac, and 30 grains 



10 TRADE SECRETS. 

mustic. Dissolve and add benzine until the varnish 
imparts to glass a roughened appearance ; use cold. 

Drilling Glass — Make a three cornered drill, not 
too pointed. Turn slowly, keep it well flooded with 
spirits of turpentine containing as much camphor as 
it will dissolve ; drill from both sides of the glass, 
be careful when the point comes through, and finish 
the hole with a file flooded like the drill. 

Gold Color Upon Brass. — To color brass gold color 
dip it after having been polished bright, into a di- 
luted solution of neutral acetate of copper, which, 
however, must contain no free acid. 

To Frost Watch Movements. — Put the article to 
be frosted, for a few minutes in a solution of nitric 
and muriatic acids and salt, equal parts. 

To Make Ivory Flexible Speedily —Immerse it 

in a solution of phosphoric acid until it partly or 
entirely loses its opacity ; then wash it in pure cold 
water, and dry. In this condition it becomes as flex- 
ible as leather, but gradually hardens when exposed 
to dry air. An immersion in hot water also destroys 
its softness and flexibility. The following also mav 
be used : lay the ivory in 3 ounces of nitric acid, 
diluted with 15 ounces of water. The ivory will be 
soft in three or four days. 

To Make Gold Plating Powders. — Prepare a 
chloride of gold, the same as for plating with a bat- 
tery. Add to it, when thoroughly w^ashed out, cya- 
nide of potassium in the proportion of two ounces, 
to five pennyweights of gold. Pour in a pint of 
clear rain water, shake up well and then let stand 
till the chloride is dissolved, add then one pound 
of prepared Spanish whiting, and let evaporate in 
the air till dry. To apply, make the powder into a 



TRADE SECRETS. 11 

paste with water, and rub it upon the surface with 
a chamois skin. 

Black Enamel for Gold Rolled Plate, Etc.— Take 

half a pennyweight of silver, two pennyweights and 
a half of copper, three and a half pennyweights of 
lead, and two and a half pennyweights muriate of 
ammonia. Melt together and pour into a crucible^ 
with twice as much pulverized sulphur ; the cruci- 
ble is then covered, that the sulphur may not take 
fire, and the mixture is to be calcined over a fire 
until the superflous sulphur is burned away ; the 
compound is then coarsely pounded, and with a so- 
lution of muriate of ammonia, to be formed into a 
paste which is to be placed upon the article to be 
enameled ; the article must then be heated till the 
compound melts and flows. 

Solution for Cleansing Brass Chains.—Sulphuric 
acid, 4J ounces; nitric acid, 2 ounces; rain water, 4 
ounces ; saltpetre, 2 drams ; put all together in a 
glass bottle, and let stand for 5 hours, then use as a 
dip ; then at once wash of and rinse in clear rain 
water, or running water then dry in sawdust. The 
above gives the article a perfectly bright appear- 
ance. 

Frosting Silver Jewelry — Sulphuric acid, 1 gill ; 
clear rain water, 1 pint ; heat the pickle and im- 
merse the silver until frosted as desired if it does 
not frost fast enough, add more sulphuric acid, if 
too fast add more water. 

Pickle for Cleansing Etruscan Silver Jewel- 
ry — Sulphuric acid one-half gill ; clear rain water,half 
pint ; heat the article to be cleansed red hot, be care- 
ful not to melt it, and plunge into the pickle. I 
find it best to heat the article upon a peice of 
pumice stone by gas. Be careful not to smoke it, 



12 TRADE SECRETS. 

and it will become as white as new. You can re- 
peat the operation several times. 

Silver Plating Without a Battery* No. 2.— 

In a glass vessel put one ounce nitrate of silver, 2 
ounces Cyanide potassium, 4 ounces of prepared Span- 
ish whiting, and about 10 ounces of distilled water, 
or pure rain water. Rub on with white canton flannel. 

For Making Steel Very Hard.— Take say, 
two teaspoonfuls of water, one half teaspoonful of 
flour, and one of salt, heat the steel, to be hardened, 
to coat it with the paste by immersing it in the 
composition, after which heat it to a cherry red 
and plunge it in cold soft water. It is said, that 
stubb files are hardened in this manner. 

Enameling. — Pulverize the enamel in a stone 
mortar. After it is reduced to a fine powder, put 
enough water t)r alcohol to make a paste, put the 
enamel into such parts as you wish to enamel. 
Dry carefully and thouroughly before putting heat 
to it. Enamelers have a furnace made expressly 
to enamel. After the article to be enameled is pre- 
pared, it is put into the furnace and the enamel 
melted. So that it flows into and fills all the lines 
&c. For small articles jewelers melt the enamel 
by means of an alcohol lamp, blowing the blaze 
upon the work with a blow pipe. Enamel of all 
kinds can be had of material dealers. 

Silver Plating Fluid. — Dissolve 1 ounce nitrate 
of silver in crystals in 12 ounces soft water, then 
dissolve in the water 2 ounces cyanide of potash, 
shake the whole together and let stand until it be- 
comes clear. Have ready some -^ ounce vials, and 
fill half full of fine whiting, and then fill up the bot- 
tles with the liquor and it is ready for use. 

To Repair the Dial of a Watch.—Take a 



TRADE SECRETS. 13 

little pure spermaceti, melt it with white of silver, 
and carefully fill the injury ; rub it smooth with a 
linen rag, and finish with silk paper. Spermaceti 
is better for the purpose than white wax. 

To Remove Stains from Statuary Marble. 

Take equal parts of fresh oil of vitrol and lemon 
juice ; shake up these substances very thoroughly ; 
wet the spots with the mixture and in a few mi- 
nutes rub with a soft linen cloth, and the spots 
will be found to have entirely disappeared. 

To Whiten Silver Articles.— Boil them in a 
solution of one part of cream of tartar, two parts 
salt and fifty parts rain water until they assume a 
fine unpolished white. 

Covering Small Pieces of Steel with Brass. 

Plunge them in a solution of six grammes of Sul- 
phate of copper and six grammes of chloride of tin, 
in a quart of clear soft rain water. 

Soldering Fluid that does not occasion rust, is 
prepared in the following manner : Small prices of 
zinc are immersed in muriatic acid, and left in it 
until the acid is saturated with it, which may be 
known by the cessation of ebullition of the acid, 
and also by the zinc, added after that stage, being 
left undissolved. Add spirite of ammoni^, about one 
third the quantity of the acid thin with a like 
quantity of rain water. If at the time adding the 
zinc, the muriatic acid is heated a little, the zinc 
will dissolve sooner. This fluid does notacaus rust 
on iron, or steel, and is excellent for all purpose, 
even for tinning. 

Zincing Copper or Brass.— Make a strong so- 
lution of chloride of zinc, and put the article with 
pure zinc turnings into it and boil, add plenty of 
the turnings. 



14 TRADE SECRETS. 

To Remove The dark spots in watch-cases, 
pour a drop of oil of turpentine, on the part af- 
fected ; let it remain a few moments, and wipe it 
off rubbing them with a rag dipped in the oil, will 
effect the same thing. 

To Etruseanize Gold Jewelry— Pulverized 
alum, one tablespoon full, and the same amount of fine 
table-salt, powderd Salpeter, 2 tablespoons full. 
Boiling rain water, sufficient to make the solution 
when dissolved the consistency of thick soap suds, 
then add sufficient muriatic acid, to produce the 
color desired. No jewelry under 14 K. can be 
successfully treated with the above. Fine etruscan 
jewelry that has become smooth from wear may be 
perfectly renewed by the same process. 

Bringing Gold back to its Original Color 
after Soldering. — Heat the article almost 'red 
hot and plunge into diluted sulphuric acid. (About 
1 gill of acid to 3 gills of clear water.) Take 
it out of the acid and wash, then polish with pum- 
ice stone, wash again and finish with rouge. I 
find pumicestone much better than rotten stone, as 
it is quicker and does the work better. Mix it 
with water. 

A Bronze for all Metals.— Salammoniac, 2 
dr. ; oxalic acid, one-half dr. ; vinegar, one-half pint. 
Dissolve the oxalic acid first. The work must be clean; 
put on with a brush ; repeat the operation if neces- 
sary. 

Gold Varnish. — Turmeric, one-half dram; gam- 
boge, one-half dram ; turpentine, 1 pint ; shellac, 
two ond one-half oz. ; sandarach, two and one-half oz.; 
4 dr. dragons blood; four oz. mustic varnish. Let 
stand from 12 to 15 days. Shake occasionally. 



TRADE SECRETS. 15 

Deep Gold Lacauer. — Seed-lac, one and one-half 
oz. ; lamerick one-half oz. ; dragons blood, one dram; 
alcohol, one-half pint. Let it stand for 6 days. Shake- 
ing it frequentl}^, then strain. 

To Blacken Clock Hands. — Asphaltum varnish, 
apply with a brush. I have used this for years; it 
makes them look like*new. 

Jewelers German Cement.— Put into a bottle 
2 ounces of isinglass, and 1 ounce of the "best gum-ar- 
abic ; cover them with proof spirits. Cork loosely, 
and place the bottle in a vessel of water, and boil it 
till a thorough solution is affected ; then strain for 
use. Best cement in the world. 

Brittle Gold. — Gold should be melted over char- 
coal, or coke, and if of low grade, should not be ex- 
posed to the heat to long. If it continues to be 
brittle melt the second time, add a little salpeter, 
and a little later some borax. Stir well, and add a 
little salammoniac just before j^ouring it out. In 
forging gold it must be annealed as often as it be- 
gins to get hard and brittle. Low grade gold needs 
annealing oftener than finer gold. Bichloride of Tiier- 
cury (corrosive sublimate) is used also for making 
gold meltable. 

Bending Glass Tubes.— Fill the tube with fine- 
ly sifted sand, close both ends, and heat it over a 
flame ; it may thus easily be bent without losing 
its roundness at the elbow. 

Cleaning Solution for Clocks.— Get a tin 

bucket with a close-fitting cover, and large enough to 
take any clock movement ; pour in of the fluid until 
it stands about two inches deep ; then with a brush 
and rag remove as much of the old oil and dust as 
possible. Take awa}^ the verge, wind up the springs, 
and lay the movement into the bath, and as it runs 



16 TRADE SECRETS. 

down shake it about smartly. In less than two min- 
utes the works may be taken out quite as clean as 
they came from the factory. Shake off the benzine, 
and gently tap the movement on the floor to get 
all the liquid you can from the springs. Let the 
pivots become perfectly dry before oiling. In marine 
movements take out the lever^and balance, and put 
them also in the bath. I have lately substituted 
gasoline for benzine, which I think is even prefer- 
able and cheaper, being only 10 to 15 cents per 
gallon. One of the advantages of either benzine or 
gasoline over alcohol is that they never loosen jewels 
in roller or lever, and have a fine eflfect upon all 
steel parts, especially pinions gummed up with old 
oil and dirt. Get the deodorized if you can. 

To Remove ftaick Silver from Ring^s or 
Jewelry. — Heat the article gradually, and it will 
entirely evaporate; it should never be left on gold 
for any length of time, as it makes gold brittle and 
spoils its appearance. 

Eighteen Karat Gold for Rings, &c.— To 

gold coin, 24 grs. (or one dollar gold piece), add 4grs. 
pure copper, pure silver 1| grs. 

To Make Sixteen Karat Gold.— Take 17 grs. 
gold, 5 grs. copper, and 2 grs. silver. 

To Make about Fourteen Karat Gold.— Take 

one dollar piece, and add 12 grains pure copper, and 
6 grains silver. 

To Make Soft Solder Flow very Easy,— Add 

a few drops of mercury, melt the solder and add the 
mercury, and stir for a few seconds; then pour out 
and it is ready for use. 

To Make German Silver.— Melt together, 25 
parts copper, 15 parts zinc, and 10 parts nickel. 



TRADE SECRETS. 17 

Yellow EDamel. — Red lead, 8 ounces, oxide of 
antimony and tin, calcined together, of each 1 
ounce ; mix and add of flux No. 5, 15 ounces ; mix 
well and fuse. 

' Blue Enamel. — White frit, or flux, colored with 
oxide of cobalt. 

Another Blue Enamel. — Sand, red lead and nitre, 
of each, five parts ; flint glass or ground flints, 10 
parts ; oxide of cobalt, one half part, more or less, 
depending on the desired depth of color. 

To Close Cracks in Coral— Warm it very care- 
fully, and with a pencil brush cover the crack with 
watch oil ; when cool the seam will not show. 

To Remove Soft Solder No. 2.— From work that 
is to be hard soldered, or colored, scrape off what 
you can with a scraper, then gently heat it so that 
you may shake or brush as much off as possible, 
then place it in spirits of salt (muratic acid) for 
some time. This receipt is useful where hard solder- 
ing is required, either in colored or bright work. 

To Take Enamel out of Gold or Silver.— Take 

flour spar and pound ii fine, cover the article well 
with it, then pour vitriol on sufficient to make a 
thin liquid, boil the article in this and^ the enamel 
will be removed. '■''•* 

Red Enamel. — Sulphate of iron reduced to pow- 
der by heat, 1 part, a mixture of 6 parts of flux 
No. 5, and 1 part colcothar, 3 parts. This makes a 
dark red. 

Red No, 2. — Sulphate of iron, 2 parts ; flux No. 
1, 6 parts ; white lead, 3 parts. This makes a light 
red, 

Violet Enamel. — Purple enamel, 2 parts; red 
enamel, 3 parts ; frit, 6 parts. 



18 TRADE SECRETS. 

Bose Color Enamel— Purple enamel, 3 parts; 
flux 90 parts; mix and add silver leaf or oxide of 
silver, 1 part, or to suit your fanc)\ 

White Enamel. — Lead, 30 parts ; tiu, 33 parts ; 
calcined. Tlien fuse 50 parts calcine, with an equal 
weight of flints in powder, and 100 parts of salt 
of tartar. A fine dead white enamel. 

White, No. 2. — Washed diaphoretic antimony, 1 
part ; fine glass, (pure), 3 parts mix and pour the 
fused mass into clean water; again powder, and fuse 
and repeat the whole process three or four times. 
Keep from smoke, dirt, or oxide of iron. 

Green Enamel. — Transparent flux, 5 ounces; 
black oxide of copper, 30 grains; oxide of chromium, 
2 grains ; this resembles the emerald. Another good 
green enamel is made from transparent frit, any 
quantity ; oxide of chormium enough to color as de- 
sired. 

Olive Enamel. — Blue enamel, 2 parts ; black, 1 
part; yellow enamel, 1 part. 

Orange Enamel. — Red lead, 6 parts ; oxide of 
antimony, 2 parts; flint powder IJ parts; red sul- 
phate of iron ^ part; calcine, then add flux, 2J 
parts, to every 1 part of this mixture. 

Orange, No. 2. — Red lead, 6 ounces ; red sul- 
phate of iron, ^ ounce ; oxide of antimony, J ounce ; 
flint powder, 1^ ounces ; calcine together, powder 
and melt with flux 25 parts. 

Purple Enamel. — Flux or frit, colored with 
oxide of gold, purple precipitate of cassins, or per- 
oxide of mangenese. 

Yellow Enamels No. 2.— Lead, 1 ounce; tin 
ashes, 1 ounce ; litharge, 1 ounce ; antimony and 
sand, 1 ounce of each ; nitre, four ounces ; mix, fuse 



TRADE SECRETS. 19 

and powder and add the product to flux or frit, 
enough to reduce the color. 

How to Regulate a Watch ftuickly.— The 

following is a practical method for regulating a 
watch in a few minutes, also to put in a new 
balance spring, of the right size and regulated per- 
fectly, in a w^atch without running it : First ascer- 
tain how many vibrations the watch beats in one 
minute, by counting every other vibration, and 
comparing that time with a well-known watch or 
regulator. In general, Swiss watches beat 18,000 
in one hour, viz., 300 in one minute. American 
watches also, either 18,000 or 16,200, or 270 beats 
per minute, and the English lever 14,400, or 240 
per minute. If there is any doubt, it is better to 
count up leaves and teeth and ascertain the right 
number, but cases that watches beat odd numbers 
are scarce. Having ascertained the right number, 
examine the balance carefully for one or two mi- 
nutes, counting every vibration going from right 
to left and in the meantime examine the regulator 
or clock, to see when one minute is up. If the 
watch is well regulated, the number of vibrations 
must be exactly half of the 'regular first number, 
viz., 150, 135, or 120, as every other vibration has 
been recorded to facilitate the observation. If not 
so, move the regulator right or left until a perfect 
coincidence comes. To pick up a new balance 
spring after having recorded the right number of 
beats — either by the old spring or by the number 
of the train — lay first the spring with its center 
well in the center of the cock jewel, and having 
ascertained where the coil will enter between the 
curb pins of the regulator, note the place. Stick 
to the pivot of the balance a small round piece of 
beeswax; then stick it to the center of the spring, 



20 TRADE SECRETS. 

SO as to establish a temporary but firm connection 
of the two pieces, and having pinched with the 
tweezers the balance spring indicated by the regu- 
lator pins, cause it to vibrate gently ; then count 
the vibrations for one minute, and "when you 
have a spring that will produce nearly the required 
number of beats, pin it to the collet and cause it 
again to vibrate, moving the tweezers backward or 
forward until the right number of beats is pro- 
duced ; with another pair of tweezers pinch the 
balance spring about one-eigth of an inch back of 
the regulating point, so as to counterbalance the 
gain produced by the regulator pins, and bend the 
wire slightly, which is the place where the hair 
spring must be pinned to the stud. Having then 
trued up the spring, proceed to put the regulator 
to the right place, by using the way indicated in 
the beginning of this article, and the work is done. 
Success is certain when the operation has been 
carefully performed. The balance must be made to 
vibrate on some hard and well-polished substance, 
so as to keep up the vibration to about the stand- 
ard of regular running. A little practice will soon 
enable the watchmaker to change a balance spring 
very quickly, and without any trouble whatever. 

Valuable Diamond Test.— If the point of a 
needle or small hole in a card, when seen through 
the stone, appears double, the stone is not a dia- 
mond. All colorless gems, with the exception of 
the diamond, cause double refraction. 

• Varnish for Clocks. — It is often necessary to 
revarnish clock castings and other objects. We 
give a few recipes of easely-prepared varnishes. 
Common Varnish. — 16 parts mastic ; 2 parts Venetian 
turpentine; 24 parts sandarac ; 120 parts alcohol. 



TRADE SECRETS. 21 

Black Varnish. — 20 parts alcohol ; 1 part saiidarac ; 2 
parts shellac ; I part elemi ; 1 part shellac ; 1 part 
mastic; one part boneblack; 1 part Venetian tur- 
pentine. Red Varnish. — 50 parts alcohol ; 1 part 
dragons blood; 4 j^arts Venetian turpentine ; 4 parts 
shellac; 8 parts mastic; 2 parts elemi. For a Color- 
less Varnish^ use 1 part mastic ; 2 parts bleached 
shellac; 2 parts sandariic, and 20 parts alcohol. 
The ingredients are put into a bottle and placed 
near a stove to facilitate their solution. When dis- 
solved, filter through a fine clotli and it is ready 
for use. 

Watches Losing Time- — Should a watch lose 
time from the action of the balance spring, pin 
the latter into the stud so that the part of the 
eye immediately emerging from the collet, and the 
center of the collet are in a line ; then you will 
have the spring pinned in, in "equal terms", as it 
is called by those who are versed in the higher 
branches of springing. Bring the watch to time 
by adding to or taking from the balance, and poise 
it; try the Avatch with the 12 up for two hours ; 
then with the 6 up for two hours, then lying 
down for the same time. The trials here discribed 
will be sufficient, if the watch has seconds : keep 
the curb pins close, so as to allow the spring only 
a little play; the vibration of the balance should 
be If turns, or IJ lying. 

Molding Metals —Plaster of Paris —Is made 
hard enough for a mold for metal castings by the 
use of alum ; dissolved in the water used for mix- 
ing the plaster. 

Chain Running off Fusee.— In the first place 
ascertain the cause of the difficulty; if it results 
from the chain being too large, the only remedy is 



22 TRADE SECRETS. 

a new chain ; if not too large, and yet it runs ofif 
without any apparent cause, change it end for end, 
that will generally make it go all right. In cases 
where the channel in the fusee has been damaged 
and is rough, you will be under the necessity of 
dressing it over with a file of the proper size and 
shape. Sometimes you will find the chain naturally 
inclined to work away from the body of the fusee. 
The best way to remedy a difficulty of this kind 
is to file off a very little from the outer lower edge 
of the chain for its entire length ; this, as you will 
see, will incline to w^ork it on instead of off. Some 
workmen, when they have a bad case, and a com- 
mon watch, change the standing of the fusee so as 
to cause the winding end of its arbor to incline a 
little from the arbor. This, of course, can not do 
otherwise than make the chain run to its place. 

Oride—How to Make.— Copper, 79.7 parts; 
zinc, 88.05; nicklc, 6.09, with a trace of tin and 
iron. 

Dissolving Silver from Silvered Articles.— 

A pot of enameled cast iron is nearly filled with 
concentrated sulphuric acid, and the whole brought 
up to a temperature of from 150° to 200° C ; then at 
the moment of using it, pinchos of dry and pulver- 
ized salt petre are thrown into it, and the article 
held with a copper wire plunged into the liquid; 
the operation may be repeated after washing and 
drying thoroughly — As water would spoil it. 

Oxidizing Silver.— Take 4 or 5 gramms per 
litre of hydro sulphate of ammonia, or preferably, of 
quintisulphide of potassium, (liver of sulphur), are 
added to ordinary soft water, brought up to a tem- 
perature of 70° to 80° C. As soon as the articles are 
dipped into this solution, they become covered with 



TRADE 8ECRET8. 23 

an iridescent pellicle of silver sulphide, which, after 
a^few seconds more in the liquid, become blue black. 
The article is then removed from the water, rinsed, 
scratch-brushed, and burnished when so desired. 
As far as practicable, immediately . use the freshly 
prepared liquors, otherwise the prolonged heat will 
precipitate too much sulphur, and the deposite will 
be wanting in adherence. 

Essence for Gleaning Watches.— The follow- 
ing composition, the ingredients of which may be 
obtained in any drug store, will produce a brilliant 
surface on either gliding or brass : Take 90 weight 
parts of refined petroleum, and 25 parts of sulphuric 
ether. The object is immersed for several minutes, 
in fact they may remain for a longer period without 
danger, and on removal from the bath are found to 
be clean and bright. It must not be forgotten that 
this essence is liable to ignite with the proximity 
of a lighted lamp. 

Remove Gold From Silver— Gold is taken 
from the surface of silver b}^ spreading over it a 
paste made of pulverized salammoniac with aquafortis 
and heating it till the latter smokes and is nearl}^ 
dry, when the gold may be separated by rubbing 
it with a scratch brush. 

Cement For Glass and Metals.— Litharge, 2 
parts ; white lead, 1 part ; boiled linseed oil, 3 parts ; 
gum copal, 1 part ; mix just before using. This 
forms a quickly drying and secure cement. 

To Prepare Chalk. — Pulverize the chalk 
thoroughly and then mix it with clean rain water. 
Stir well, and then let it stand about two minutes. 
In this time the gritty matter will have settled to 
the bottom. Slowly pour the water into another 
vessel, so as not to stir up the sediment. Let stand 



24 TRADE SECRETS. 

until entirel}^ settled to the bottom, and then pour 
off as before. The settlings in the second vessel 
will be prepared chalk, ready for use as soon as 
dried. Spanish whiting treated in the same wa}^ 
makes a very good cleaning or polishing powder. 
Some watchmakers add a little crocus, and we think 
it an improvement ; it gives the powder a nice 
color. 

Writing Inscriptions on Metals— Take one- 
fourth pound nitric acid, and one ounce muriatic 
acid, mix, shake well together, and it is ready for 
use. Cover the place you wish to mark with melted 
beeswax ; when cold, write youf inscription plainlj^ 
in the wax, clear to the metal, using a sharp in- 
strument ; then apply the mixed acid with a feather, 
carefully filling each letter. Let it remain from 1 
to 10 minutes, according to appearance desired ; then 
throw on water, which stops the process, and re- 
move the wax. 

Etching Fluids for Copper. -- Aquafortis, 2 
ounces; water, 5 ounces. For steel, sodine, 1 ounce; 
iron, J drs.; water, 4 ounces. Digest till the iron 
is dissolved. For fine touches, dissolve 4 parts each 
of verdigris, marine salt, and salammoniac, in 8 
parts vinegar, add 16 parts water, boil for one or 
two minutes, and let cool. 

Gum for Backing Labels, — Mix pure dextrine 
with boiling water, until it assumes the consistency 
of ordinary mucilage. Apply with a full, evenly 
made camel's hair brush. The paper should not be 
too thin or unsized. 

Ruby Pin. — If it is necessary to tighten a ruby 
pin set in asphaltum varnish, It will become harder 
in a few minutes and be much finer and better than 
gum shellac. 



TRADE .gECRETfS. 25 

Tempering Brass> — Brass is rendered hard by 
hammering or rolling, therefore, when you make a 
thing of brass, necessary to be tempered, prepare 
the material before shaping the article. Temper 
may be drawn from brass by heating it to a cherry 
red and plunging it into water. 

To Prevent Rust. — Cast iron is best preserved 
by rubbing it with black lead. For polished work, 
varnish with wax dissolved in benzine, or add a 
little olive oil to copal varnish, and thin with 
spirits of turpentine. To remove deep seated rust, 
use benzine, and polish with fine emery, or use tri- 
poli, 2 parts ; pulverized sulphur, 1 part ; apply with 
soft leather. Emery and oil is also good. 

Celluloid from Potatoes. For this purpose the 
peeled potatoes are boiled for 36 hours, in a fluid 
consisting of 8 parts sulphuric acid, and 100 parts 
water ; then dried between blotting paper, and 
relieved of the superfluous water by pressing. 

Silvering Mixture. — Dissolve 2 ounces silver 
with 3 grains corrosive sublimate; add tartaric, 4 
pounds and 8 quarts salt. 

Paste for Gleaning Metals.— One part oxolic 
acid, 6 parts rotten stone, mix with equal parts 
train oil and spirits of turpentine to a paste. 

Molding Sand for Brass or Iron.— Sands 
employed lor casting iron or brass have been found 
to be almost uniform in chemical composition, vary- 
ing in grain or the aggregate form only. It con- 
tains 93 and 96 part silex or grains of sand, and 
from 4 to 6 parts clay, and a little oxide of iron, in 
each 100 parts. Molding sand which contains lime, 
magnesia, and other oxide of metals is not applica- 
ble, particularly for the casting of iron or brass. 
Such sand is either too close, will not stand or retain 



26 TRADE SECRETS. 

its form, or will permit the metal to boil through 
its closeness. 

Melting and Refining Gold.— In melting gold 
urge the fire to a great heat, and stir the metal with 
the long stem of a tobacco pipe, to prevent honey- 
combing. If steel or iron filings get into the gold, 
throw in a piece of sandiver the size of a common 
nut; it will attract the iron or steel from the gold 
into the flux, or sublimate of mercury will destroy 
the iron or steel. Never melt gold with anything 
but gas or charcoal fires. To cause it to roll well, 
add a teaspoonful of sal ammoniac and charcoal, 
et[ual quantities, both pulverized. Stir well for two 
or three minutes. 

Cleaning Pearls — Boil the pearls for about 
one-quarter of an hour in fresh cows milk, in which 
soap has been dissolved ; then take them and rinse 
them in clean water, and dry with a clean, white 
cloth. If the desired results have not been obtained, 
repeat the operation several times. Should they still 
not become white, try the following : Form a small 
loaf of bread in which the pearls are laid, either 
strung upon a silk thread or loosely wrapped in a 
piece of gauze ; then bake the bread pretty strong, 
not too brown ; let it cool ; break it and take out the 
pearls ; which will generally be found handsomely 
white. If the above should be insufficient, and the 
pearls are still yellow, take a cup full of well-heated 
wine vinegar, and suspend the pearls, hung upon a 
silk thread, or wrapped in a piece of gauze, in it for 
a few minutes. Also, sulphuric acid, diluted with its 
equal quantity of water may be used ; rinse them well 
in clean water, and repeat operation until they have 
become white. This remedy will never fail, except 
the pearls were naturally yellow, from which there 
is no help. 



TRADE SECRETS. 27 

Improved Process in Etching Glass.— First, 

put the drawing upon the object, either by hand, 
transfer or direct printing, with almost any oil or 
varnish, mixed with a little color, to render it 
visible ; then powder it by means of a brush, or tuft 
of cotton, wuth pulverized metal, copal, or such sim- 
ilar substance — what is commercially known as 
"bronze powder," is very suitable for the purpose ; 
dry it, then dip it into fluoric acid ; or that may be 
also put on with a brush, if desirable. After a few 
seconds the powder begins to peel ofif, then wash it 
in water ; it is not necessary to remove the printing 
color, the fluoric acid destroying it ; it comes of in 
the water. 

Polishing Powder. — An excellent polishing pow- 
der for gold and silver consists of burnt and finely 
pulverized rock alum, 5 parts; levigated chalk, 1 
part ; mix and apply with a dry brush. 

Engravers' Border Wax.— Beeswax 1 part; 

pitch z parts; tallow 1 part ; mix. 

Engraver's Cement- — Resin, l part; brick-dust; 
1 part ; mix with heat. 

Soldering Tortoise Shells— Bring the edges 
of the pieces of shell to fit each other, observing to 
give the same inclination of grain to each, then se- 
cure them in a piece of paper, and place them be- 
tween hot irons, or pinchers; apply pressure and then 
cool. The heat must not be so great as to burn the 
shell, therefore, try it first on a white piece of paper. 

Silvering Powder- — Nitrate of silver and com- 
mon salt, 30 grains of each ; cream of tartar, 3J 
drachms ; pulverize finely and bottle for use. Un- 
equalled for polishing powder for plated goods. 

To Polish Steel- — No. 2. — Take crocus of tin 
oxide and graduate it, in the same way as preparing 



28 TRADE SECRETS. 

diamond dust, and apply it to the steel by means of 
a piece of soft iron or bell metal, made in proper 
form, and prepared with flour of emery ; same as for 
pivot burnishers ; use coarsest of the crocus first, and 
tinish off with the finest. To iron or soft steel, a bet- 
ter finish may be given by burnishing than can he 
imparted by the use of polishing powder. Another 
method ot polishing steel is by the use of crocus on a 
buff wheel. Nothing can exceed the surpassing 
beauty imparted to steel, or even cast iron by this 
process. 

To Clean Silver. — Put two ounces of finely 
powdered Paris White into an eight-ounce bottle, 
and put in six ounces of aqua ammonia, and 
shake well. Wet a soft cloth with this mixture 
and rub it over your silver; let it dry and polish 
Avith a piece of Canton flannel. This is as good 
as any cleaning mixture you can get, and costs 
but little. 

To Temper a Drill Very Hard.— Heat the drill 
to a cherry red and quench it in mercury, and it 
will drill hardened steel, or cut glass about as good 
as a diamoned. 

To Soften Cast-iron for Drilling —Heat to a 
cherry red, having it lie level in the fire ; then 
with a pair of cold tongs put on a piece of brim- 
stone, a little less in size than the hole is to be 
when drilled, and it softens entirely through the 
piece ; let it lie in the fire until a little cool, 
when it is ready for drilling. 

To Tin Copper Stew Dishes.-— Wash the surface 
of the article to be tinned with sulphuric acid, and 
rub the surface well, so as to have it smooth and 
free of blackness, caused by the acid; then sprinkle 
calcined and finely pulverized sal-amoniac upon the 



TRADE SECRETS. 29 

surface, holding it over a fire, when it will be 
sufficiently hot to melt a bar of solder, which is to 
be rubbed over the surface ; any copper dish or 
vessel may be tinned in this way. 

To Tin Iron for. Soldering. — Take any quantity 
of muriatic acid, and dissolve all the zinc in it that 
it will cut; dilute it with one-fourth as much soft 
water as of acid, and it is ready for use. Rub this 
liquid on iron ; and, no matter how rusty it may 
be, it will brighten it up so that solder will readil}' 
adhere to it. 

To Clean Ohamos. — Make a weak solution of 
soda and warm water, rub plenty of soft soap into 
the leather, and allow it to remain in soak for two 
hours ; then rub it well until it is quite clean. 
Afterwards rinse it well in a weak solution of 
warm water, soda and j^ellow soap. It must not 
be rinsed in water only, for then it would be so 
hard, when drj^, as to be unfit for use. It is the 
very small quantit}^ of soap left in the leather that 
allows the finer particles or fibers of the leather to 
separate and become soft like silk. After rinsing, 
wring it well in a rough towel and dry q^iickly ; 
then pull it about and brush it well^ and it will 
become softer than most new leathers. 

Transparent Blue for Steel. — Damar varnish, one 
pint ; finely pulverized Prussian blue, J oz.; mix 
thoroughly. This makes a splendid appearance, 
excellent for bluing watch hands, screw heads, steel 
spectacles, etc. 

Rust Proof Bronze— Consists of nickel 100 i)arts ; 
tin, 10 parts ; platinum, 1 part. 

Cleaning Gild Surfaces.— Take one ounce powder 
borax, too one pint of rain water, dissolve the borax 
and boil for one minute. Rub gently (when cool), 



30 TRADE SECRETS. 

then rinse with pure water, dry in sawdust or a 
soft linen rag. 

Simple Receipt for Silvering —Chloride of silver 
with equal parts of fine table salt and cream of tar- 
tar, transforming it into a thin, paste by adding 
water if necessary. The article to be silvered, first 
well wash with a hot soda solution and soap, it is 
then rinsed thoroughly in hot water, w^ash again 
with pumice powder, after which it is rinsed in 
running water, and before drying it is coated with 
finely pulverized table salt, so that the article is 
covered with a thin layer therof; a little of the sil- 
ver paste is next rubbed on, then quickly rub on a 
little cream of tartar, which is also to be applied in 
the same w-ay, then w-ash. This coating is hand- 
some and as white as snow. 

Recovering Gold from Coloring Bath. — Dissolve a 
handful of sulphate of iron in boiling water, and 
add it to your "color" water; it precipitates the 
small particles of gold. Now draw of the water, 
being very careful not to disturb the auriferous sed- 
iment at the bottom. You will now proceed to 
wash the sediment from all trace of acid with plenty 
of boiling water; it will require three or four separ- 
ate washings, with sufficient time between each to 
allow the water to cool and the sediment to settle 
before passing off the water. Then dry in an iron 
vessel by the fire and finally fuse in a crucible with 
borax and saltpeter for a flux. 

Silvering Solution for Electrotype Plates.— Ni- 
trate of silver, 2 drs.; distilled water, 37 drs.; dis- 
solve and add salammonica, 1 dr.; hydrophosphite of 
soda, 4 drs.; precipitated chalk, 4 drs.; agitate the 
preparation occasionally for twelve hours, when it 
will be ready for use. Apply w^ith a sponge. 



TRADE SECRETS. 31 

To Clean Brass. — Rub the surface of the metal 
with rotten stone and sweet oil, then rub off with 
a piece of cotton flannel, and polish with soft leather. 
A solution of oxalic acid rubbed over tarnished 
brass soon removes the tarnish, rendering the metal 
bright. The acid must be washed off with water, 
and the brass rubbed with whiting and a chamois 
leather. A mixture of muratic acid and alum dis- 
solved in water imparts a golden color to brass ar- 
ticles steeped in it for a few seconds. 

To Remove Tin from Gold.— Just previous to 
pouring the gold, throw a small piece of corrosive 
sublimate into the pot, stir well with a long piece 
of pointed charcoal, or shake the crucible with the 
tongs, and allow the pot to remain on the fire about 
one minute afterward. This will take out the tin ; 
gold containing tin will not roll without cracking. 

To Remove Emery or Steel Filings From 
Gold. — Add a small piece of glass-gall while melt- 
ing ; it will collect them in the flux. 

Repairing Cylinder Watches.— It frequently hap- 
pens that the cylinder edges are worn off, and it 
does not pay to put in a new cylinder ; the watch 
may, nevertheless, be put into keeping a good rate 
by altering the escapement. Look at the cylinder 
and see if there is room either above or below the 
old wears to shift the action of the wheel, if the 
wheel holes are of brass ; make one a little deeper, 
and put a shallower one on the other side ; this 
may perhaps be sufficient. This must be done ac- 
cording as you want your wheel, up or down. If 
the holes are stone, shift your wheel on the pinion 
by a new collet, or turning away more of the old one, 
as the case may require. If you raise your wheel, 
see that it works free of the plate and top of the 



32 TRADE SECRETS. 

cylinder, and that the web of the wheel clears the 
top of the passage. This last fault may be altered 
by polishing the passage a little wider, if the rub 
is slight. If shifted downward, see to the freedom 
at the bottom of the cylinder, etc. 

Aluminum Silver.-rAn excellent alloy of fine lus- 
ter and polish consists of copper, 70 parts ; nickel, 
23 parts ; aluminum, 7 parts. 

To Prevent Silver from Oxidizing or Tools Rust- 
ing. — The rusting of bright steel tools is due to the 
precipitation of moisture from the air. It may be 
obviated by keeping the air surrounding the goods 
dry. A saucer of powdered quick lime in an ordi- 
nary show case will usually suffice to prevent the 
oxidizeing of silver ware exhibited therein. 

Cleaning Silverware. — Hypo-Sulphurous soda is 
one of the simplest and best cleansing agents known 
for silverware. It operates quickl}^ and is cheap. 
A brush moistened with the saturated solution 
of the salt cleans, without the use of cleaning pow- 
der, strongl}^ oxidized silver surfaces within a few 
seconds. 

Jeweler's Cement. — Isinglass soaked in water 
and dissolved in spirits, 2 oz., (thick); dissolve in 
this 10 grains of very pale gum ammonia, (in tears), 
by rubbing them together ; then add six large tears 
of gum mastic, dissolved in the least possible quantity 
of rectified spirits When carefull}^ prepared, this 
cement resists moisture and dries colorless. Keep 
in a closely stopped vial. 

To Clean Brass. — This method is in use in all 
the U. S. Arsenals, and claimed to be the best in the 
wwld : Make a mixture of one part common nitric 
acid in a stone jar, having alsp ready a pail of 
fresh water and a box of sawdust ; the articles to 



TRADE SECRETS. 33 

be treated are dipped in the acid, tnen thrown into 
the water, and finally rubbed with sawdust. If the 
brass has become greasy, it is first dipped in a strong 
solution of potash and soda in warm water; this 
cuts the grease so that the acid has power to act. 

Glass for Coating Metals.— The following method 
has been used for coating metal surfaces with glass. 
Take about 125 parts, by weight, of ordinary flint 
glass fragments, 20 parts of carbonate of soda, and 
12 parts borax and melt. Pour the fused mass out 
on some cold surface, as of stone or metal, and pul- 
verize when cooled ofif. Make a mixture of this pow- 
der with silicate of soda (water glass) 50° B. With 
this coat the metal to be glazed, and heat in a 
muffle or other furnace until it has fused. This 
coating will adhere very firmly to steel or iron. 

To Whiten Silver Watch Dials.— Flatten a piece 
of charcoal by rubbing it on a flat stone; on this 
place the dial, face upward; apply a gentle heat 
carefully with a blowpipe, allowing the flame to 
play all over the surface of the dial without touch- 
ing it, so as to thoroughly heat without warping 
the dial, then plunge into a pickle consisting of one 
part sulphuric acid, and a little water, or acid 
enough to make the water very tart, and immersing 
but for a few seconds. 

Magic Polish for Brass.— Add to sulphuric acid 
half its bulk of pulverized bichromate of potash di- 
lute with an equal amount of water, and apply well 
to the brass ; immediately swell it well in water, 
wipe dry, polish with pulverized rotten stone. 

Drilling Holes in Oast Iron Steel.— Use carbolic 
acid, with the ordinary drill. There is nothing bet- 
ter. 



34 TRADE SECRETS. 

Black Varnish for Iron — Asphaltum, 1 pound • 
lamp black and resin, ^ pound each ; spirits turpen- 
tine, 1 quart ; linseed oil, just sufficient to rub up 
the lamp black before mixing it with the others. 
Apply with a camel's hair brush. 

Lustring. — In order to give articles a handsome 
lustrous surface, they are dipped for one or two 
seconds, while moving them constantly to and fro^ 
in a mixture, prepared at least on the previous 
evening, consisting of nitric acid 36°, 100 parts by 
volume ; sulphuric acid 66°, 100 parts by volume ; 
table salt, 1 part by volume. After having been 
taken out of this bath, the articles must again be 
well rinsed in plenty of clean water. The nitric 
acid must always be put first into the vessel in- 
tended for its reception, as the sulphuric acid would 
remain on the bottom without mixing. 

Metal Letters on Plate Glass. — Use the following 
binder: Copal varnish, 15 parts; drying oil, 5 parts ; 
turpentine, '3 parts ; oil of turpentine, 2 parts ; lique- 
Ude, 5 parts. Melt in a water bath and 10 parts 
slacked lime. 

Protecting Stones When Hard Soldering.-— Take 

a small crucible and fill it with sand ; when you 
Avish to solder a ring, wet the sand, cut a piece of 
charcoal that will fit inside of the ring ; now put 
the ring upon the charcoal *' finger," put the head 
of the ring in the sand, let the charcoal project 
about half an inch each side of the ring, then lay 
a piece of charcoal upon the crucible so as the edge 
will be against the ring where you want to solder. 
Put your borax and solder on where you wish it to 
flow, and blow the blaze sharp and quick. It needs 
practice and common sense. I have used this re- 
ceipt for 10 years and never spoiled a stone. 



TTADE SECRETS. 35 

Drills. — For Jeweler's use are best hardened in 
oil or sealing wax, when strongly heated red hot. 
Beeswax is also good. 

For Oil Stone.~Use f petroleum and J oil; 
mix ; the stone is always in working order, and it 
never becomes oil soaked, or gets too hard by using 
the above. 

To Make Nickel or Cobalt Malleable.— Add J 

per cent, metallic magnesium through a hole in 
the cover of the crucible. 

Excellent Paste for Cleaning Metals — Is made 
of equal parts of benzine and saturated oxalic acid 
solution, mixed with powdered rotten stone, to the 
consistency of thin paste ; keep covered tight when 
not in use. 

When Articles already soldered require a re-solder- 
ing, and it is necessary to keep this from running, 
which is best efifected by a coating of dampened 
crocus or Persian red, care being taken, however, 
not to bring it too closely to the edge of the frac- 
ture, thus hindering the solder from flowing. 

Solderingf Cast Iron — Is generally considered to 
be very difficult, but it is only a question of 
thoroughly making bright the surface to be soldered^ 
and using good solder and a clean swab with 
muriatic acid. 

Turkish Cement. — Put 1 oz. of isinglass and -J 
oz. of the best gum-arabic into a bottle, cover them 
with proof spirits, and cork loosely, then place the 
bottle in a vessel of water and boil it till a 
thorough solution is efiected, then strain for use. 

Hardening Pinions, — The steel parts to be temp- 
ered are first heated upon charcoal, in the customary 
manner, then annointed with ordinary washing soap ; 
hea,ted to cherry red, and quickly immerse in petro- 



36 TRADE SECRETS. 

leum. Steel articles heated in this manner do not 
warp, no matter how thin, and remain almost 
entirel}^ white. 

Crocus, dried, and powdered, when applied with 
Chamois leather to nickel-plated goods, will restore 
their brilliancy without injuring their surface. 

NAMES OF DIFPERENT PAETS OF THE WATOH MOVE- 
MENT FOE BEGINNEKS. 

Winding Arbor. — The post on which the key is 
placed to wind the watch. 

Anchor. — A piece of the escapement used in clocks 
and lever watches. A detached lever is often called 
an anchor escapement. 

Barrel. — The wheel which contains the main 
spring. 

Bridge. — A piece secured to the plate, in which 
a pivot works. 

Balance Wheel. — That wheel which moves back 
and forth. 

Beat. — Each tick of the watch. 

Click. — A small lever or spring which works into 
a ratchet and prevents the sudden recoil of the main 
spring after the watch is wound up. 

Center Wheel. — The large wheel in the center of 
the watch. 

Chick. — A small pin ; which hold the bridges in 
position. 

Dial Wheels. — Those working between the dial 
and pillar plate. 

Escapement. — Those pieces in the watch or clock 
which work together and regulates the velocity of 
the train. 



*^ TRADE SECRETS. 37 

Fork. — That part of the lever into which the ruby 
pin plays. 

Fly or Fan. — An arbor carrying two wings or fans 
for the purpose of meeting with atmospheric, resis- 
tance, and thus regulating the motion of striking 
trains in clocks. 

Hour Wheel. — The wheel working around the 
cannon and upon which the hour iand is fastened. 

Gearing. — The action of the teeth of one wheel 
upon those of another wheel. 

Guard Point. — The wedged-shaped elevation im- 
mediately back of the fork in detached levers. 

Minute Wheel. —The wheel which is driven by 
the cannon pinion. 

Pallets. — The jeweled piece of the lever watch, 
which works into the teeth of the scape wheel. 

Roller. — The circular plate into which the ruby 
pin is set, sometimes called the ruby pin table. 

Ruby Pin. — A small glass or stone pin which 
works in connection with the lever. 

Ratchet. — A steel wheel into which the click works. 

Pillar Plate. — The bottom plate of a watch ; some 
watchmakers call both pillar plates, distinguishing 
them as upper and lower. 

Jewel. — The stone or glass settings through or 
against which the pivots work ; also the settings in 
the pallets and the roller. 

Collet. — A small ring fitting on the balance staff 
or arbor, and holding the inside end of the hair- 
spring. 

Dial- — The face of a clock or watch. 

Cock. — The bridge over the balance wheel. 



38 TRADE 3ECRETS. * 

Connon. — The steel piece which comes up through 
the dial, around which the hour wheel revolves. In 
American levers the minute hand is fastened upon it. 

Cylinder. — The hollow piece which checks the 
onward motion of the scape wheel in cylinder es- 
capement watches. 

Gannon Pinion. — The pinion at the lower end 
of the cannon, which moves the minute wheel. 

Fusee, — The cone shaped wheel upon which the 
chain works in English lever watches. 

Scape Wheel. — The last wheel of the train. 

Pivot. — The end of an arbor turned very small. 

Fourth Wheel. — The wheel that in ordinary 
watches, works into the scape wheel. 

Arbor. — An axel which turns upon itself by 
means of its pivots. 

Staff. — A name generally given to the balance 
arbor of lever watches. 

Pinions. — A small leaved wheel. 

Leaves. — Teeth or cogs of a pinion. 

Index— Hand. 

Lever. — A horizontal bar upon which the pallets 
are secured, and which conducts the effect of the 
motive power from the train to the balance. 

Pillars. — Posts which in plate watches hold the 
plates the proper distance apart "for the working of 
the train or trains between them. 

Teeth. — Cogs by which the motion of one wheel 
is communicated to another. 

Train « — A collection of wheels so arranged that 
the moving power applied to the first wheel is freely 
communicated to them all. 



TRADE SECRETS. 30 

Wheel Bead.^ — A bead turned out in a watch 
to receive a wheel. 

Third Wheel. — The wheel into whose pinion the 
center wheel works. 



Nuts are often so tightly rusted upoi? screws 
that other means must be made use of to loosen 
them ; kerosene or naptha will in a short time pene- 
trate between the nut and stem. Turpentine is also 
very good to loosen nuts rusted as above. 

Cleansing Ivory Ornaments.— Ivory orna- 
ments are quickly cleaned by brushing them with 
a new but not a very sharp tooth brush, to which 
a little soap is used; then rinse the ornaments in 
luke-warm water ; next dry and brush a little with 
alcohol ; should it become a little yellow dry it in 
a gentle heat and it will appear as if new. 

To Make Plaster Paris Figures Look Like 
Bronze. — 2^ ozs. palm soap ; J oz. sulphate of 
copper, and f oz. of sulphate of iron. Dissolve the 
soap in rain water in one vessel and the sulphates 
in another; put together and let settle, then pour 
off the water. Dry the precipitate and apply to 
the figure by mixing as a paint with linseed oil and 
turpentine. 

To Prepare a Gold Solution Without Acids. 

— Dissolve 2 ozs. Cyanide of Potassium in J gallon 
of pure rain or distilled water; set this solution on 
a gas or oil stove and keep it hot, (not boiling) 
then place a clean porous cup or cell in it, and fill 
the cell a little over half full with the solution. 
Now take a $1 gold piece or a $2.50 gold piece and 
roll or hammer it out about as thin as heavy writ- 
ing paper ; then have a piece of pure copper, the 
size of your gold, to which is fastened the wire 



40 TRADE SECRETS. 

from the zinc plate of a battery ; (or what is called 
the positive pole) let the copper plate be about half 
immersed in the cell, fasten the gold (by copper 
wire) to the wire running from the platina of the 
battery, (or what is called the negative pole) and 
let it hang immersed nearly one-half in the solu- 
tion outside of the cell, thus the current will dis> 
solve the gold on the negative pole and the solu- 
tions take it up, while the porous cell prevents it 
from plating on the copper. Dissolve copper the 
same way ; one-half of a $1 gold piece and about 
one-half the amount of copper. Dissolved in the 
above solution makes a very nice color for watch 
cases and rings ; add as much water as has evap- 
orated, and also a little Cyanide ; filter through pa- 
per, by the aid of a glass funnel, and your solution 
is ready for use. 

How to Keep the Silver Solution in Order. 

— By watching the anodes the operator will acquire 
valuable indications in regard to the bath. Thus 
should the anodes become black during the passage 
of the electric current, it is a sure proof that the 
solution contains too little Cyanide of potassium 
and too much silver. In this case the deposit is 
entirely too slow and the bath looses more silver 
than it can gain from the anodes ; you must add^ 
with precaution, Cyanide of potassium. If, on the 
other hand, the anodes remain ivhite during the 
current, the proportion of Cyanide of potassium is toa 
great, the deposited silver is often without adher- 
ence, and the anodes lose more metal than is 
deposited. The remedy consists in adding the silver 
salt until it dissolves with difficulty. Every- 
thing is in good working order when the anodes 
become gray during the passage of the electricity,, 
and lohite when the circuit is broken. 



TRADE SECRETS. 41 

Solution for Cleaning Watches —Use benzine. 
You need not wash the articles in anything else 
after_ taking from the bath. There is nothing that 
can leave them in a better condition. Let them 
remain in the bath from three to five minutes. As 
you take each piece out, and before it has time ta 
3ry, use a clean brush, dampened by a touch of the 
tongue, and apply slightly to chalk, and the best 
results will follow. 

How to Make Neutral Terehloride of Gold» 

— This very important salt, used so much in gild- 
ing and galvanoplasty, is only successfully made by 
the observance of the utmost care. It is obvious 
that persons wishing to make small quantities may 
do so by reducing the amount of gold and the size 
of the parts of measures. To reduce one ounce of 
gold, you shall want one thinbohemian glass beaker, 
lipped for pouring, of about 8 oz. size ; one glazed 
porcelain evaporating dish, holding 10 oz.; one glass 
funnel ; and the best Swedish or French filtering 
paper, and a glass rod ; the vessels must be perfectly 
clean, and distilled or very clean rain water used. 
Take one ounce of nitric acid and pour it into the 
beaker, and into the same pour 3 ounces of hydro- 
chloric acid. Place the beaker on a sand bath, (an 
oil or gas stove will do), and light. While the acid 
is getting hot, weigh out one ounce of gold coin, 
rolled as thin as you can conveniently get it. When 
the acid is hot, put in the gold in small quantities. 
Heavy brown fumes will arise as the gold dissolves, 
and appear to flow over the sides of the beaker ; a 
violent action w411 also be observed, resembling the 
boiling of the liquid. If this becomes too violent, 
and threatens to throw out spurts of acid, lower the 
gas and put in less quantities of gold. Soon the 
acid will become less turbulent, and change its golden 



42 TRADE SECRETS. 

color to a redder tint, but continue to add gold until 
the last little fragment refuses to dissolve. Then 
prepare the filter, by inserting a cone of filtering 
paper in a glass funnel, and placing that in the 
niter stand above the evaporating dish ; moisten 
the paper with a little water, and then pour the 
gold solution from the beaker into the filter, and 
allow it to trickle slowly into the dish below. If 
any gray powder or white grains remain at the bot- 
tom of the beaker, it may be osmium or iridium, 
whilst the white powder is chloride of silver. In this 
way these metals can be separated from gold, and 
an alloy of gold and silver parted, for only the gold 
enter into the solution. The dish containing the 
solution is now to be placed in the sand bath, and 
heat applied to drive off the excess acid by evapora- 
tion. When this has proceeded until the liquid as- 
sumes a reddish brown tint, and becomes thick, it 
will require some care and attention to complete the 
operation. It must be frequently stirred with a glass 
rod ; care must be taken not to overheat it, and as 
it thickens and darkens put on a pair of thick 
gloves (rubber or leather) take the dish in the hand 
and frequently turn around to make the liquid flow 
around its sides and crystalize there. By thus turn- 
ing it about all the liquid will finally crystalize in 
a ruby mass, and now the operation is complete. 
If too much heat is applied, the crystals will assume 
a brown bronze hue, lose their chlorine, and metallic 
gold will be reduced on the sides of the capsule or 
dish. If this happens, a brown powder will be found 
after the crystals have been dissolved in water, and 
this may be treated with aqua regid as before. 

The Hardest Steel May be incised easily if the 
engraving tool is dipped into a solution of two parts 
of petroleum with one part of turpentine. 



TRADE SECRETS. 4S 

Writing on Silver, — To write on silver, the trac- 
ing of which will never fade, take burnt lead and 
pulverize it ; incorporate it with sulphur and vinegar 
to the consistency of paint, and write with it on 
silver plate. Let it dry, then hold it to the fire so 
as to heat the work a little, and it is complete. 

Cementing Silver on Marble— Glue a piece of 
paper on the marble, then glue the silver on to the 
paper, it will stick for years. 

Bronze For Brass or Iron—Chrome green, 1 
lb.; ivory black, J ounce ; chrome 5^ellow, J ounce ; 
Japan, ^ gill ; grind together and mix with linseed 
oil. 

Green Bronze. — Wine vinegar, l qt.; verditer 
green, 1 oz.; salamoniac, J oz.; salt, 1 oz.; alum, |^oz.; 
French berries, 4 oz.; boil all together for 10 min- 
utes, use as a dip while hot. 

Ivory that has become yellow may be bleached in 
the following manner : The article is placed under 
a glass together with a small quantity of chloride 
of lime, and muriatic acid, and expose it to sun-light; 
and the article will be restored to its original lustre. 

Cement. — Take clean glass, powder it very fine 
'and pass it through a silken seive, rub this on a 
marble slab with the white of an egg, and add glass 
to thicken sufficiently. It is an extremely tenacious 
cement, and the parts will never separate again. 
Good for porcelain, glass, china, &c. 

To Remove Bluing from Steel.— Immerse for 
a few moments in a pickle of equal parts muriatic 
acid and elixir vitrol. Rince in clean water and 
dry in warm sawdust. 

To Case-Harden Iron. — Heat to a bright red in 
a crucible, pour in enough powdered cyanide of pot- 
ash to cover it ; let it remain five or six seconds, 



44 TRADE SECRETS. 

and then turn out into rain water. It will polish 
up equal to steel and be quite as hard. 

Nickel Plating — Nickel deposited by the wet 
way is w^hitish with a slightly yellow tinge. Its 
dead lustre is dull and pearl gray, and is easily ob- 
tained by disolving the nitrate of nickel in its own 
weight of ammonia, and diluting the whole with 
20 or 30 times its volume of liquid bisulphite of 
soda, making about 24° B. The baths should be a 
double salts of nickle, such as double sulphates or 
hydrochlorates of nickel and ammonia. It is con- 
sidered necessary for the success of the operation to 
have neutral baths, and salts of a perfectly constant 
composition. The baths are like ordinary electro- 
plating baths, with separate batteries and soluble 
anodes of nickel plate. The operation lasts about 
12 hours for ordinary sized articles. 

Other Nickel Baths- — A solution of nitrate of 
nickel, without excess of acid, is precipitated by 
Cyanide of potassium, and the precipitated re- 
dissolved by more Cyanide. An acid solution of 
nickel may be precipitated by alkalies, such as po- 
tassa, soda, or ammonia, and after washing the 
precipitated it is dissolved in Cyanide of potassium. 

Nickel Platings Without Battery.— Into the 
plating vessel, which may be of porcelain, though 
copper is prefered, is placed a concentrated solution 
of zinc chloride, which is then diluted with from 
one to two volumes of water, and heat to boiling. 
(If any precipitate separates, it is to be re-dissolved 
by adding a few drops of hydrochloric acid.) As 
much powdered zinc, as can be taken on the point 
of a knife, is thrown in, by which the vessel be- 
comes covered internally with a coating of zinc. 
The nickel salt, for which purpose either the 



TRADE SECRETS. 45 

chloride or sulphate may be used, is then added, 
until the liquid is distinctly green ; and the arti- 
cles to be plated, previously thoroughly cleaned, are 
introduced, together with some zinc fragments. The 
boiling is continued for fifteen minutes. When the 
coating of nickel is completed, the articles are well 
washed with water and polished; if a thicker coat- 
ing be desired, the operation may be repeated. 
Wrought and cast iron, copper, brass, zinc and lead 
have been successfully plated by this process. It 
is only necessary that the articles be covered 
entirely ,by the solution, and the surface thoroughly 
cleaned. 

To Make Gold Amalgam —Take sixteen parts 
gold and two parts mercury, form into an amalgam, 
for plating, by rendering the gold into thin plates, 
making it red hot, and then putting it into the 
mercury while the latter is also heated. The gold 
immediately disappears in combination with mer- 
cury, after which the mixture may be set in water 
to cool, when it is ready for use. 

To Plate With Gold Amalgam.— The article 
to be plated is washed over with diluted nitric acid 
or potash lye and prepared chalk. After having 
been polished perfectly bright the amalgam is ap- 
plied as evenly as possible, usually with a fine 
scratch brush. It is then set upon a grate over a 
charcoal fire, or placed into an oven and heated to 
that degree at which mercury evaporates. The 
gold, when the mercury has evaporated, presents 
a dull yellow color. Cover it with a coating of 
pulverized nitre and alum, in equal parts. Mix to 
a paste with water, and heat again till it is 
thoroughly melted, then plunge into water. Then 
burnish with a steel or bloodstone burnisher. 



46 TRADE SECRETS. 

Splendid Powder for Silvering.— Add to 1 

ounce molten zinc, the same quantity of mercury, 
grind or pulverize, and then add 7 J ounces artificial 
horn. When a metal is rubbtd with this powder 
it takes at once the appearance of silver. 

Copper Plate Etching with Chromic Acid. 

Copper can be engraved more easily and with 
cleaner cut edges by this receipt than any other 
known : 800 parts hot water, 150 parts bichromate 
of potasseum, 350 parts sulphuric acid, at 60°. The 
liquid thus obtained is not so dangerous as those 
usually employed. Cover the copper with tlie usual 
coating of wax and proceed as according to usual 
method. 

Glue Which Will Unite Polished Steel- 
Dissolve five or six bits of gum mustic, each the 
size of a large pea, in as much alcohol, as will suf- 
fice to render it liquid ; in another vessel, dissolve 
in brandy as much isinglass, previously softened in 
water, as will make a two ounce vial of strong glue, 
adding two small bits of gum ammoniac, which must 
be rubbed until dissolved. Then mix the whole 
with heat ; keep the vial closely stopped ; when it 
is to be used, sit the vial in boiling water. 

Copper Solder for Filling —16 dwt. fine silver 
2 dwt. fine copper, 2 dwt. fine brass. 

To Color Brass Black. — Make a mixture of 
4 parts of hydrchloric acid, and 1 part of arsenic, 
apply it to the cleaned brass surface .till the required 
black coating is produced, then wash it off, dry 
thoroughly and give it a coat of good lacquer. 

To Remove Rust, — If you immerse the article 
in kerosene oil and let them remain for some time, 
the rust will become so much loosened that it will 
come off easily. 



TRADE SECRETS. 47 

Good Cement for Lathes— Good resin, 3 parts ; 
beeswax, 1 part; plaster paris one part; melt, mix 
and draw into rolls. 

To Temper Gravers and other instruments 
larger than drills, may be tempered in quicksilver; 
or you may take lead, instead of quicksilver. Cut 
down into the lead, say half an inch, then having 
heated your instrument, to a light cherry red, press 
it firmly into the cut. The lead will melt around 
it and an excellent temper will be imparted. 

Phosphorescent Powders. — Phosphorescent pow- 
ders can be prepared as follows : 10 oz. of carbonate 
and phosphate of lime (obtained by calcining oyster 
shells and sepia bones) are mixed with 10 oz. 
caustic lime ; 2J oz. chloride of sodium calcined, are 
then added, and 20 to 25 per cent, of the weight of 
sulphur, 3 to 7 per cent, sulphide of calcium, 
barium, strontium, or magnesium, which has pre- 
viously been exposed to sunlight. 

To Make Bronze Malleable. — Add to it from J 
to 2 per cent mercury. 

A Good Cement for Glass, and one which com- 
pletely resists the solvent action of water, may be 
prepared by the following process : From five to 
ten parts of pure dry gelatine are dissolved in one 
hundred parts of water. To the solution about ten 
per cent, of a concentrated solution of bichromate 
of potash is added, and the liquid is kept in the 
dark. When articles joined by this cement are ex- 
posed to the light the gelatine film is acted upon 
by the chemical rays, the chromate being partially 
reduced, and the film of the cement becomes tough 
and durable. 

How to Dissolve Shellac— Put in any suitable 
vessel the desired quantity of shellac ; place this in 



48 TRADE SECRETS. 

another large vessel containing hot water, and pour 
upon it rather more than enough boiling water to 
cover it ; now take liquid ammonia and pour in 
slowly but steadily, and stir the melted shellac 
till dissolved. If too much ammonia is poured in, 
the solution will be very dark and spoiled ; if too 
little, it will not be sufficiently dissolved. The 
natural color of the shellac ought to be preserved. 
When cold it must be filtered, and is ready for use, 
and will keep for any length of time. 

Silvering Glass. — Solution 1. Nitrate of silver, 
1 ounce ; water, 10 ounces. Solution 2. Caustic 
potash, 1 ounce ; water, 10 ounces. Solution 3. Glu- 
cose, one-half ounce ; water, 10 ounces. The above 
quantities are those estimated for 250 square inches 
of surface. Add ammonia to solution No. 1 till 
turbidity first produced is just cleared. Now add 
No. 2 solution, and again ammonia to clear ; then 
a little solution, drop by drop, till the appearance 
is decidedly turbid again. Then add No. 5 solution, 
and apply to the clean glass surface. A film was 
obtained in forty-three minutes, at a temperature of 
56° F. 

How to Give a Brown Tint to Steel. — Dissolve 
in four parts of water, two parts of crj^stalized 
chloride of iron, two parts of chlorido of antimony, 
one part gallic acid, and apply with a sponge or 
cloth, and dry in the air; apply and dry till the 
color attains the tint required and then rub well 
with oil. This is said to resist atmospheric mois- 
ture. 

Mending Vulcanite Chains. — Watchmakers are 
often asked to mend the broken parts of vulcanite 
chains. If any attempt is made to open them cold, 
the link will in nine cases out of ten snap 



TRADE SECRETS. 49 

especially stout ones; and if they do not break, the 
end spring opened, will not again clcse. Heating 
by candle or fire will burn them, but, if held over 
the chimney of a kerosene lamp, they will in a 
few seconds become so soft that you might pull 
them straight, and shut them up again or close as 
when new, without injury to shape or polish, Horn 
or tortoiseshell may be treated in the same manner. 

Vulcanite, when placed in a bath of nitro-ben- 
zine, becomes, at the end of four or five weeks, soft 
and flexible, and may be fashioned into any design. 

Soldering Steel. — It is well known by those en- 
gaged in metallurgy that much difficulty exists in 
soldering steel ; it may be interesting to give the 
simple method, within the reach of all. The material 
used is pulverized white marble. The two pieces to 
be soldered are heated, and after being rolled in 
the marble dust they are quickly placed one on the 
other and hammered. The same method may be used 
for small articles. 

To Mend Celluloid Jewelry — This is a very good 
receipt: Make a collodion by mixing 10 oz. ether, 
1 oz. alcohol, 12 grs. gun cotton; color with redan- 
line, and apply as a cement. The above is ver}^ 
strong, and the same color as the celluloid. If it 
gets too thick put in more ether. Keep well corked 
or- it will evaporate. 

Soft Solder. — It is often very convenient, and in 
fact sometimes necessary, to have soft solder which 
will flow at different degrees of temperature. Many 
instances occur in which jobs cannot (in the coun- 
try) be done by a professional jeweler, consequently 
the watchmaker is expected to do whatever nobody 
else can; and he must often run the risk of spoil- 



50 TRADE SECRETS. 

ing work by subjecting it to too intense heat, 
whereas, if he had a little easy-flowing soft solder, 
there would be no danger. From the following 
table you can easily j)repare such as you wish — if 
only ti little of some of the sorts, it will be found 
convenient : 

Ko. 1. 1 part Tin, 25 Lead— Melts at 580=^ F. 

2 I u u 10 a u u 54]^ 

3 -^ u a 5 u u u 511 

4. 1 " " 3 " " " 482 

5. 1 '' "2 " " '• 441 

6 1" a 1 t. u u 37Q 

• 7. U " " 1 " " " 234 

8. 2" " " 1 " " " 810 

9. 3 " "1 '" " " 356 
10. 4 " "1 " " " 365 
31. 5 " "1 " " " 378 

12. 6 " "1 " " " 381 

13. 4 " " 4 " 1 pt. Bism'th 320 

14. 3 " " 3 " 1 '• 310 

15. 2 " " 2 " 1 " 292 

16. 1 " " 1 " 1 " 254 

17. 1 " " 2 "2 " 236 

18. 5 " •' 3 *' 3 " 202 

No 8 is the common tinsmith solder. No. 7 is the 
most fusible unless Bismuth be added. No. 18 will 
melt at 122°, by the addition of three parts of mer- 
cury. The most convenient form for using soft 
solder is to have it in wire. It is very easy to have 
it in that form; for when 3'ou have it melted in a 
ladle, in pouring it out on a flat iron or stone you 
must trail it — that is, draw your ladle along so as 
to flow out on the stone a thread of metal. With 
a little practice you cannot but succeed. Any of 
these alloys will flow with the ordinary soldering 
fluid. 



TRADE SECRETS. 61 

Another convenience for soft soldering is not as 
much used as it might be, and would save injury 
to many a job; that is, a soldering iron, the same 
as a tinsmith's, only minuter. A piece of copper 
wire, an inch long, and one-fourth inch thick, filed 
away almost to a point with a wire handle about 
four inches long, terminated by a bit of wood or 
cork. In using, heat the copper in the lamp flame 
by laying it across something, to save time, and 
when hot enough to melt the solder, touch the end 
into 3'our pickle, which will brighten it ; then touch 
it to a bit of solder, and it will take it up. Then 
you can apply it at any point you wish, without 
heating the balance of the article in hand. 

Solution for Producing High Brilliancy in Silver 
Work — Cream of tartar 30 parts, sea salt 30 parts, 
sulphate of alumine and potash 30 parts, water 1500 
parts. Boil the article in this mixture. 

Powder for Silvering. — Add to 1 oz. molten zinc 
the same quantity of mercury. Grind and then 
add 7J oz. artificial horn. When a metal is rubbed 
with this powder it takes at once the appearance 
of silver. 

To Clean Silver. — Pat 2 ounces of finely powered 
Paris white into an 8 ounce bottle, and put in 6 
ounces of aqua ammonia and shake well. Wet a 
soft cloth with this mixture and rub it over your 
silver; let it dry and polish with a piece of canton 
flannel. This is as good as any cleaning mixture 
you can get and costs but little. 

Grinding Glasses. — Provide two pieces of cork, 
one concave and one convex (which may be cut to 
shape after fitting to lathe). Take a copper coin 
or some other suitable article and soft solder a screw 
to fit the lathe, and then wax it to the cork ; then 



52 TRADE SECRETS. 

get a twentj'-five-cent emery wheel, such as is used 
on sewing machines, and you have a complete out- 
fit for cutting your watch-glasses. Polish the edge 
on the zinc collar of the emery wheel, or use a 
piece of zinc to do it. The other cork should be 
waxed to a penny and centred. The spectacle 
lenses may be cut on the same emery wheel, if the 
wheel is attached to- a lathe so as to revolve. An- 
other method is to take a common piece of window 
glass (green glass is the best), and make a grind- 
stone of that, using the flat surface to grind on. 
Cement it on a large chuck, the glass being from 
2 to 2-5 inches in diameter. Any one not familiar 
with this method would be surprised to see how 
fast the glass is cut away, for either spectacles or 
watches. In grinding watch-glasses put them flat 
on the chuck-glass, not on the edge. 

Pearls will never tarnish or lose their brilliancy 
if kept in drv, common magnesia, instead of the 
cotton wool used by jewelers. 

Liquid Foil for Eilvering Glass Globes, etc. — 

Lead, 1 part; tin, 1 part; bismuth, 1 part; melt, 
and, just before it sets, add mercury, 10 parts. Pour 
this into the globe and turn it rapidly round. 

Silvering Shells. — Silver leaf and gum water, a 
sufficient quantit}^ ; grind to a proper thickness, 
and cover the inside of the shells. For a Go!d 
Color, grind up gold leaf with gum water, and ap- 
ply to the inside of the shells. 

Metal Saow Cases give jewelers a good deal of 
trouble in keeping them in anything like decent 
order. The best preparation we know of for keep- 
ing them bright is tripoli the kind that comes in 
lumps (can be had at Frasse & Co.) A pound of 
this will last a long time, and when properly pre- 



TRADE SECRETS. 53 

?ared will be found useful in a great many ways, 
t must be reduced to a fine powder mixed in wa- 
ter, and applied with a piece of chamois-skin, and 
allowed to dry, then clean off with a dry cloth or 
chamois-skin. 

Silver Platters' Stripping Liquid.— Sulphuric 
acid, 8 parts ; nitre, 1 part. Used to recover silver 
from old plated ware. 

Silvering Ivory. — Immerse a small slip of ivory in 
a weak solution of nitrate of silver, and let it re- 
main till the solution has given it a deep yellow 
color; then take it out, and immerse it in a tum- 
bler of clear water, and expose it to the rays of 
the sun. In about three hours the ivory acquires 
a black color; but the black surface on being rub- 
bed soon becomes changed to a brilliant silver. 

Polishing Vulcanite. — Remove scratches with 
a smooth wet water of Ayr stone, and then polish 
in the lathe with fine pumice stone and a stiff brush. 
After washing the pumice off polish it with whiting 
and soft brush. The mathematical instrument 
makers treat it as brass ; that is, for flat work they 
use water of Ayr stone, and then rotten stone and 
oil. Turned work is polished in the lathe with rot- 
tenstone and oil, taking care nc>t to use too high 
a speed which would heat the w^ork. Some use 
lampblack and oil to finish with where a very high 
polish is wanted, or on the bare palm of the hand, 
as in getting up silver plate. Chain and ornament 
makers use circular buffs for their flat work, made 
ot sea-horse leather, and for work of irregular forms 
buffs of calico. A number of pieces twelve inches 
in diameter, are screwed together between flanges, 
like a circular saw spindle, and used with rotten 
stone, always taking care not to heat the work ; 
brushes are not at all suitable for it. 



di TRADE SECRE TS. 



MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. 



A Cure for Dyptheria.— Mr. John S. Wise, a 
piirgeon of Thorncomb, Dorset, writes to the London 
Times that, after two cases of malignant cliptheria 
out of some nine or ten he had been called to at- 
tend had proved fatal, the mother of a sick child 
showed him an extract from an American paper 
concerning a practitioner who used sulphur to cure 
the decease. Accordingly he used milk of sulphur 
for infants, and flour of sulphur for older children 
and adults, brought to a creamy consistency with 
glycerine. Dose, a teaspoonful or more, according 
to the age, three or four times a day, sw^allowed 
slowly, and application of same to the nostrils with 
a sponge. 

Result — He did not lose a case there or elsewhere, 
and he succeeded in saving life when the affection 
had almost blocked the throat. 

Recipe for Making the Whiskers Grow.— 

Cologne, 2 oz.; liquid hartshorn, 1 drachm ; tincture 
cantharides, 2 drachms; oil of rosemary, 12 drops; 
oil of nutmeg, 12 drops ; oil of lavender, 12 drops. 

Green Salve. — One quarter lb. lard ; 1 oz. rosin ; 
1 oz. bees-wax ; 1 drachm verdigris ; melt and stir 
well. This is one of the best salves known for old 
sores, ulcers, cancers, scrofulous sores, cuts and 
wounds. 

^ Arnica Liniment. — Two ozs. alcohol ; 1 drachm 
tincture aruica. Unequaled for pains in the feet 
and limbs from walking ; for all fresh or recent 
sprains, bruises or contused wounds, and for rheuma- 
tism of the joints and gouty pains. 



TRADE SECRETS. 55 

Black Wash. — 1 qt. lime water; 1 drachm cal- 
omel. To be used for foul and indolent ulcers ; ex- 
cellent to wash saddle sores on horses backs. 

Bitters. — Take boneset, wild cherry bark and 
poplar bark ; make an infusion by adding a quart 
of warm water ; let it cool and drink when thirsty. 
This is a certain cure for fever and ague. I re- 
ceived it from an Indian, and found it to be the 
master of ague. 

Aid for a Choked Person.— Dr. J. W. White 
gives these directions to save one who is choking: 
Force the n;iouth open with the handle of a knife 
or of a strong spoon ; push the thumb and fingers 
deep doAvn into the throat beyond the root of the 
tongue, and feel for the foreign boily. If the ob- 
struction cannot be grasped, a hairpin bent into a 
hook and guided by the left hand will often bring 
it out. If this fails, get some one to press against 
the front of the chest or support it against the 
edge of a table, and strike several hard, quick blows 
with the open hand on the back, between the 
shoulder-blades. Further treatment must be applied 
by a physician, who should have been immediately 
sent for. 

For Cough. — Take one tablespoonful of molasses, 
two teaspoonfuls of castor oil, one teaspoonful of 
camphor, and one teaspoonful of paregoric ; take 
half a teaspoonful frequently. This is of great ser- 
vice when children have symptoms of croup. 

Poultice for a Fester. — Boil bread in lees of 
strong beer ; apply the poultice in the common man- 
ner. This has saved many a ^imb from amputation. 

For Cholera Morbus,— Take a chicken just 
killed, if possible; boil it in two or three quarts of 
water, and let the patient drink freely of the broth, 



5G TRADE SECRETS. 

either with or without salt. It should be boiled 
several hours. 

Certain Cure for Headache and all Neural- 
gic Pains. — To be applied as any other lotion : 
Opodeldoc, spirits of wine, sal ammoniac, equal parts. 

A Simple Eemedy for Burns is the white of 
an egg; it excludes the air, and is healing. 

Kose Bleeding". — Roll up -a piece of paper and 
press it up under the upper lip. 

For a Sting. — Bind on the place a thick plaster 
of common salt or salseratus moistened ; it will soon 
extract the venom. 

Corns- — To cure corns take one measure of coal 
or gas tar, one of saltpetre and one of brown sugar; 
mix well. Take a piece of an old kid glove and 
spread a plaster on it the size of the corn, and ap- 
ply it to the part affected; bind on and leave for 
two or three days, and then remove, and the corn 
will come with it. 

Hair Oil — One pint alcohol, 2 oz. castor oil, a 
few drops of perfumery. Shake well to cut the oil. 
This is a splendid and nicely perfumed hair oil ; it 
softens the hair, promotes its growth, and prevents 
it from falling out. 

Toothache Drops. — One oz. alcohol, 2 drachms 
Cayenne, 1 oz. kerosene oil ; let it stand 24 hours 
after mixing. It cures the worst toothache. 

Earache. — Take a bit of cotton batting; put 
upon it a pinch of black pepper; gather it up and 
tie it; dip it in sweet oil, and insert it in the ear. 
Put a flannel bandage aver the head to keep it 
warm. It will give immediate relief. 

Hair Restorative. — One drachm of sugar of lead, 
2 drachms lac sulphur, 8 oz. rose water; mix, and 



XnAJJia OlLV.XVi:il6. 



57 



shake every time it is used. Appl}'- once a day for 
a week, and twice a week thereafter ; this restores 
gray hair to its original color. 

A Simple Hair Dye. — Boil in pint of water a 
handful of rosemary; when cold, strain and bottle, 
but do not cork it. Renew it every few weeks. 
Wet the hair with it every night. 

To Whiten the Teeth.— Mix honey with finely 
powdered charcoal, and use the paste as a dentifrice. 
The juice of one lemon, a grated nutmeg, and a 
quart of gin, put in a bottle. Keep well corked. 

Chilblains. — The intense itching of frosted feet 
may be relieved by dissolving a little alum in 
water and bathing the part affected with the solu- 
tion. When you have chilled your fingers till they 
smart terribly'-, do not go near the fire, but wash 
3'our hands in snow, and you will be surprised to 
see how soon they will stop smarting. We have 
tried it. 

To Remove Warts. — Dr. Guttceit recommends 
rubbing warts, niglit and morning, with a moist- 
ened piece of muriate of ammonia. They soften 
and dwindle away, leaving no such white mark as 
follows their dispersion with lunar caustic. 

Magic Toothache Drops.— Chloroform, one part; 
oil of cloves, one part ; spirits of camphor, two 
parts ; mix, and apply to the decayed tooth on a 
bit of soft cotton. We know of nothing to equal 
this mixture for toothache, and we have seen it 
used a great deal. 

Relieving Inflamed Feet.— The first thing to 
be done is to take off and throw away tight-fitting 
boots, which hurt the tender feet as much as if 
they were put into a press. Then take one pint of 
wheat bran, and one ounce of saleratus and put it 



58 TRADE SECRET3. 

into a foot-bath, and add one gallon of hot water. 
When it has become cool enough, put in the feet, 
soak them for fifteen minutes, and the relief will 
be almost immediate. Repeat this every night for 
a week and the cure will be complete. The burn- 
ing, prickly sensation is caused by the .pores of the 
skin being closed up so tightly by the pressure of 
the boots that they cannot prespire freelj'. 

A simple, easy and effectual cure for stammer- 
ing is said to be, simply at ever}^ syllable pro- 
nounced, to tap at the same time with the finger ; 
by so doing the most inveterate stammerer will be 
surprised to find that he can pronounce quite 
fluently. 

How to Cure a Cold — On the first day of tak- 
ing a cold there is a ver}^ unpleasant sensation of 
chilliness. The moment you observe this, go to your 
room and stay there; keep it at such a temperature 
as w'ill prevent this chilly feeling, even if it requires 
a hundred degrees of Fahrenheit. In addition put 
your feet in water, half leg deep, as hot as you can 
bear it, adding hotter water from time to time for 
a quarter of an hour, so that the water shall be 
hotter when you take your feet out than when you 
put them in ; then dry them thoroughly, and put 
on warm thick woolen stockings, even if it be 
summer, for summer colds are the most dangerous ; 
and for twenty-four hours eat not an atom of food, 
but drink as largely as you like of any kind of 
warm tea, and at the end of that time, if not sooner 
the cold will be effectually broken, without any 
medicine whatever. 

How to Cure Swe]led Feet and Ankles — 

Take plaintain leaves (which can be found in al- 
most any grassy spot, and in our public parksj ; 



TRADE SECRETS. 59 

wilt them b}^ putting them separately between the 
hands ; cover the swoolen parts with them, and 
keep in place by wrapping the limbs with rags or 
a towel on going to bed at night, or keep them on 
during the day if not obliged to be upon the feet. 
A cure will be speedily effected. 

To Remove Freckles. — An ounce of alum, and 
an ounce of lemon juice, in a pint of rose-water. 

The Sun Cholera Medicine- — More than 

twenty j-ears ago, when it was found that preven- 
tion of cholera was easier than cure, a prescription 
drawn up by eminent doctors was published in the 
Ke\v York Sun, and it took the name of the Sun 
cholera medicine. No one who has this by him, 
and takes it in time, will ever have the- cholera. 
We recommend it to all our friends. Even when 
no cholera is anticipated, it is an excellent remedy 
for ordinary summer complaints, colic, diarrhoea, 
dj^sentery, etc. Take equal parts of tincture of 
Cayenne pepper, tincture of opium, tincture of rhu- 
barb, essence of peppermint, and spirits of camphor. 
Mix well. Dose, 15 to 30 drops in a little cold wa- 
ter, according to age and violence of sj-mptoms, re- 
peated every fifteen or twenty minutes until relief 
is obtained. 

Worth Knowing. — Every little while we read 
of some one who has stuck a rusty nail in his foot 
or some other part of his person, and lockjaw^ has 
resulted therefrom. All such wounds can be healed 
without any fatal consequences following them. It 
is only to smoke such w^ound, or any wound or 
bruise that is inflamed, with burning wool or woolen 
cloth. Twenty minutes in the smoke will take 
the pain out of the worst case of inflammation aris- 
ing from any wound we ever saw. 



60 TRADE SECRETS. 

Deafness is often radically cured by putting 
shark's oil or glycerine into the ears for a few nights. 
It causes the ears to discharge, and thereby relieves 
the wax inside, that hardens there and is one of 
the principal causes of deafness. It is perfectly 
harmless. 

The Following is an excellent- and safe remedy 
for children's colds: Take onions, sliced thin, and 
sprinkle loaf sugar thickly over them ; put in the 
oven and simmer until the juice is thoroughly 
mixed with the sugar. It makes a thick syrup, 
very nice. Give a teaspoonful as it seems to be 
needed, four or five times a day. 

Eing Wrrm, — It has been discovered that ring 
worm is- a vegetable parasite, as much a running 
vine as the mould in cheese. If not interrupted its 
pores develope under the skin extensively, accom- 
panied by a burning irritation. Exclude from light 
and air bv a patch, as both are as necessary for a 
ring worm growth as for an oak tree. Wash, too, 
with diluted nitric or carbolic acid. Kerosene oil 
is excellent. 

Bite of a Mad Dog. — The disease which fol- 
lows the bite of a mad-dog, is most terrible to wit- 
ness, and most fatal in its effects. Professor Smith, 
of Baltimore has given a treatment for hydrophobia 
to the people, after a trial of fifty years, which 
treatment he has never known to fail if used within 
three days after the bite ; no mad stone is more cer- 
tain in its cure, and every family has it or can get 
it. Wash the wound with warm water, and take a 
piece of caustic potash, sharpen it to a point, and 
hold it half a minute in each part of the bite. 
Each mark of a tooth must be treated in this man- 
ner, poultice the wound for a day or so, then dress 
with salve, made of carbolic acid, 10 grains ; fresh 



TRADE SECRETS. 61 

lard two tablespoonfiils ; mix. Apply several times 
a day until the wound is healed, this is a sure 
cure. 
Another Good Cure for Mad Dog Bite.— 

Make a strong lye out of wood ashes ; boil down to 
the consistency of molasses, using it wuth a sharp 
pointed stick. This is a very effectual remedy, and 
costs nothing. 

Whooping- Cough. — The best and safest cure 
for whooping-cough is to slack two to four pounds 
of fresh lime in the patient's room three or four 
times daily, and keep a vessel on the stove with 
water and slaked lime in it. This will break up 
the worst case in from three to five days — Dr. W. B. 
Killian. 

Weak Eyes. — To cure weak eyes take rose leaves, 
the more the better, and put them into a little 
water, then boil; after this strain it into a bottle, 
and cork it tight. You will find this liquid used 
as a bath, beneficial in removing redness and weak- 
ness. 

Cure for Rattlesnake Bites and other Pois- 
onous Creatures.— Indigo, 4 drams; gum camphor, 
8 drams ; alcohol, 8 ounces ; mix and keep in 
close bottles. Apply to the wound, and the cure is 
soon completed. 

Poison Antidotes. — For oil of ^ vitril, or aqua- 
fortis, give large doses of magnesia and water, or 
equal parts of soft soap and water. For oxalic acid, 
give magnesia or chalk and water. For saltpetre, 
give an emetic of mustard and w^ater, afterwards 
mucilages, and small doses of laudanum. For opium 
or laudanum, give an emetic of mustard, and use 
constant motion, and if possible, the stomach pump. 
For arsenic,- doses of magnesia are useful, but pre- 



62 TRADE SECRETS. 

pared hydrated oxide of iron is best. For insects 
taken into the stomach, drink a small quantity of 
vinegar and salt. For corrosive sublimate, give 
the whites of eggs mixed with water, until free 
vomiting takes place. 
To Remove Pimples, Styes and Boils— Touch 

them with spirits of turpentine every six 
hours. This should be applied to boils and styes 
in their first stages to effect a cure. 

Chapped Hands are improved by using camphor 
balls made thus : Powdered camphor, 2 drachms ; 
white w^ax, 1 ounce; spermaceti, 2 drachms; oil of 
almonds, 3 ounces. Mix, and mold into balls in 
gallipots. 

Itch Ointment—Unsalted butter, J lb.; bur- 
gundy pitch, 1 oz.; spirits of turpentine, 1 oz.; red 
precipitate, pulverized, f oz.; melt with pitch and 
add the butter, stirring well together ; remove from 
the fire, and when a little cool add the spirits of 
turpentine, and lastly the precipitate, and stir until 
cold. 

Inflammatory Rheumatism. --Sulphur and salt- 
petre, of each J oz ; gumgnaiac, J oz.; colchicum 
root or seed, and nutmeg, of each 1 dram. All to 
be pulverized and mixed with molasses, 1 oz. Dose — 
One teaspoonful every two hours until the bowels 
are moved freely; then three or four times daily 
until cured. 

For Sick Headache. — Two teaspoonfuls of finely 
powdered charcoal, drank in half a tumbler of water, 
will give relief in less than fifteen minutes. In 
most cases sick headache is caused from too much 
acid on the stomach, and this is a sure cure. 

Felon Cure. — Venice turpentine, 2 oz., and put 
into it one teaspoonful of water ; stir with a rough 



TRADE SECRETS. K)6 

Stick until it looks like candied honey ; then spread 
on a cloth and tie it around the finger. 

Mustard Draught.— Take a part of one egg 
and ground mustard enough to make a paste, then 
spread on a cloth and apply. This will never 
blister, and will answer the purpose. 

Mexican Mustang Liniment.— Petroleum,oHve 
oil and carbonate of ammonia, equal parts of each; 
then mix well together. Positively one of the best 
liniments used. 

Cure for Cancer- — Take chloride of zinc, blood- 
root, pulverized, and flour, equal parts of each, 
make into a paste and apply; spread a common 
sticking-plaster, much larger than the cancer, cut 
out a piece from the center a little larger than the 
cencer, applying it, which exposes a narrow rim of 
healthy skin. Then apply the cancer plaster and 
keep it on twenty-four hours. Dress with slippery- 
elm poultice until suppuration takes place; then 
heal with any common salve. 

Whooping Cough. — Use raw onions mashed. Put 
them in a muslin sack and apply to the throat and 
chest warm. Change them when dry, until the 
cough is loosend ; give syrup of Ipecac ever}^ day, 
and keep the pg,tient in an even temperature. A 
relapse may be treated in the same way. 

For Strains and Swellings —1 oz. of white 
vitriol ; 1 oz. of green copperas ; two teaspoonfuls of 
gun powder, pulverized all together, then dissolve 
in 1 qt. soft water. Apply it cold, rubbing in 
thoroughly. A splendid cure for reducing swellings. 

Ointment for Salt Rheum.— Aquafortis, | oz.; 

quick-silver, J oz. ; good, hard soap dissolved so as 
to mix readily, -g oz. ; prepared chalk, ^ oz. ; mixed 
with i lb. of lard; incorporate the above by put- 



64 TRADE SECRETS. 

ting the aquafortis and quick-silver into an earthen 
vessel, and when done eflervescing, mix with the 
other ingredients, putting the chalk in last; then 
add spirits or turpentine, J tablespoonful. 

Magnetic Ointment.—Lard, raisins cut in 
pieces, and line-cut tobacco, equal weights; simmer 
well together, then strain and press out all from 
the drugs. 

To Stop the Flow of Blood— Even from a se- 
vere wound, bind on the wound the fine dust of 
tea. After the flow has been staunched, laudanum 
may be applied with advantage. 

To Remove Dandruff.— Wash the scalp fre- 
quently with bay rum and borax, which will raise 
a lather, and rinse off with cold water. 

Bitters to Restore the Appetite.— To 1 pint 
of whisky add 1 tablespoonful of gension and J ta- 
blespoonful of Percoon. and as much U versa as you 
can hold in your fingers , mix all together, and take 
a dessert-spoonful three times daily before meals ; this 
is splendid to give a good appetite, and to purify the 
blood. 

Piles. — 1 tablespoonful of fresh lard ; one table- 
spoonful sulphur ; one-half table-spoonful of Opium; 
alum the size of a grain of corn ; mix the lard, alum 
and sulphur well together with a knife, and then 
add the opium, then apply this salve externally. 

Perry Davis* Pain Killer— Myrrh, 3 oz. 

gnaracum resin, one-half oz.; red pepper, oil and 
annis, each, one-half drachm ; dilute alcohol, one 
pint ; mix, and let stand seven days, and filter. 

Cure for Croup- — Apiece of lard as big as a but- 
ternut, rubbed up with sugar, divided into three 
parts and given at intervals of twenty minutes 
apart, will cure the croup. 






TRADE SECRET3. 66 

Wash for Sore Eyes. — 5 cents worth of sul- 
phate of zinc, to 1 pint of rain water; take the 
zinc, put it on a shovel, hold the shovel over the 
fire until the zinc quits boiling, and then put it 
in the water, and put in a bottle ; it is then ready 
for use. If it should sting the eye to much, put in 
a little more water. 

To Cure Gangreen or Old Sores —Take red 

percipity, 1 part, and two parts lard ; mix well to- 
gether, and apply to the affected parts ; this is good 
for man or beast, and an excellent remedy, and will 
cure the most obstinate cases. 

Indian Cure for Rheumatism and Neural- 
gia. — Beef gall, 2 tablespoonfuls ; spirits of turpen- 
tine, 2 tablespoonfuls ; oil of hemlock, 2 tablespoon- 
fuls ; oil of sassafras, 2 tablespoonfuls ; laudanum, 2 
tablespoonfuls ; oil of amber, 2 tablespoonfuls ; best 
alcohol, ^ pint. Mix. Rub the parts affected 3 
times a day. Internal remedy, 6 drops oil of sassa- 
fras 3 times a day taken in wine, half an hour be- 
fore eating. 

Cure for Corns — Bathe the corn well with hot 
water ; then pare it closely, and annoint it well with 
British Oil ; repeat three or four times, and a per- 
manent cure will* be effected. 

Cure for Felon or Ring Round.— Wrap the 

part effected, with the lining of an egg shell ; leave on 
as long as can be endured, then remove it by 
dampening the finger with water, and repeat the 
remedy two or three times ; this is an excellent 
remedy. 

Chillblaines, No. 2. — Mutton tallow and lard, of 
each one-eighth lb.; melt in an iron vessel, and add 
hydrated oxyide of iron, one oz., stirring constantly 



66 TRADE SECRETS. 

with an iron spoon until the mass is of a uniform 
color ; then let it cool and add Venice turpentine, 
one oz.; armenan bole, one-half ounce; oil of berga- 
mot, one-half drachm ; rub up the bole with a little 
olive oil before putting it in. 

To Remove Freckles, No. 2. — Take 4 oz. lemon 
juice, or 1 drachm of powdered borax ; add 2 drachms 
of sugar ; stir together and let stand in a glass bottle 
a few days ; then apply to the. face occasionally. 

For Sore Eyes, No. 2. — Sulphate of zinc, one and 
a half grains ; tincture of opium, (laudanum), one-half 
drachm ; rose water, one oz ; mix, and put a drop or 
two in the eye two or three times daily. 

Cure for Snake Bite, No. 2. — Take an egg and 
beat it well, then mix it with a tablespoonful of 
gunpowder, and a like quantity of salt ; spread it 
on a white linen or cotton rag and apply it to the 
wound. Shortly after it is applied the back of the 
rag will show evidence of the poison by turning 
green. Apply a second plaster and continue to 
change the application until the discoloration ceases 
to be apparent. This was said to be an effectual 
remedy in Kentucky in early times in case of snake 
bite. 

Vermifuge. — Castor oil, oil of worm seed, each 2 
©z. ; oil anise, 1 oz. ; tincture of myrrh, 1 dram ; 
oil turpentine, 20 minims ; castor oil, 4 drops. 
Mix well together. . 

Russian Salve. — Yellow wax and sweet oil, of 
each equal parts; melt slowly, stiring carefully* 
while cooling stir in a small quantity of glycerine. 
This is an excellent salve. 

Swelled Feet and Ankles. — Take plantain leaves, 
(which can be found in almost any grass spot, and 
in our public parks), wilt them by putting separ- 



TRADE SECRETS. 67 

ately between the hands, cover the swollen parts 
with them, and keep in place by wrapping the limb 
weth rags or a towel on going to bed at night, or 
keep them on during the day if not obliged to stand 
upon the feet. A cure will be speedily effected. 

Sure Cure for Hydrophobia. — The dried root of 
elecampane; pulverize it, and measure 4-J heaping 
tablespoons, and mix it with IJ teaspoons pulver- 
ized gumarabic; then divide into 4J equal parts, 
take one of these parts and steep it in one pint of 
milk until about half of the milk is evaporated ; 
then strain, and drink in the morning. Abstain 
from eating for six hours after taking the dose. 
Repeat this for three mornings in succession, then 
skip three and so on until about 9 or 10 doses 
are taken. This is a positive cure. 

To Cure the Hands from Fearing Off.— Ten cents 
worth of sugar of lead, dissolved in one pint of 
rain water, used as a wash, and before going to 
bed greese the hands with cocoanut butter, 1 oz.; it 
will last a long time ; you will find this a good 
remedy. 

Felon Ointment. — Take sweet oil, J pt.; put a three- 
cent plug of tobacco in it until the tobacco is 
crisped; then squeese it out and add red lead, J 
oz.; then boil until black ; when almost cold add 
pulverized camphor gum, J oz. 

. Rheumatic Fluid. — Oils of hemlock and cedar, of 
each I" oz.; oils of organum and sassafras, each 1 oz.; 
aqua ammonia, J oz.; capsicum, pulverized, ^ oz.; 
spirits of turpentine and gumcamphor, each ^ oz.; 
put into a quart bottle and fill it one-half full of 
alcohol. 

Colic Cure for Persons and Horses.-— Spirits of 
turpentine, 1^ oz.; laudanum, ^ oz.; mix. For per- 



68 TRADE SECRETS. 

sons a dose would be from 1 to 2 teaspoonfula in 
warm tea; children or weak persons less. For a 
horse double the dose, by putting it into a bottle 
with half a pint of warm water. If relief is not 
obtained in an hour, repeat the dose, adding half 
an ounce of the best powered aloes, well dissolved. 
Corns and Warts. — Take a small piece of potash 
and let stand in the open air until slacked, then 
make in a paste with pulverized gumarabiac. 



PAINTERS DEPARTMENT. 



Rosewood Stain. — Alcohol, one-half gallon ; cam- 
wood, one ounce ; set in a warm place 24 hours ; 
then add extract of logwood, one and one-half ounces ; 
aquafortis, one-half ounce ; when dissolved, it is ready 
for use. 

Black Stain, Extra Fine for Wood. — Pour 4 quarts 
of boiling water over 2 ounces of powdered extract 
of logwood, and when the solution is effected, 2 
drams of yellow chromat of potash, is added, and 
then well stirred ; it is then ready for use. When 
rubbed on wood it produces a pure black ; repeat 
with three or four applications till a deep black is 
produced, which acquires the highest beauty when 
polished or stained. 

Violin Varnish. — Rectified spirits of wine, 1 quart ; 
gum sandarach, 3 ounces; gum mastic, 1| ounces; 
turpentine varnish, J pint; keep the above in a 
warm place till disscived ; strain and it is ready for 
use. Should it become too thick, add more turpen- 
tine varnish. This is a splendid varnish. 



TKADE SECRETS. 69 

CopAl Varnish. — Pale hard copal, 4 pounds; add 
hot and pale drying oil, 1 gallon ; boil till it strings 
strongly, let cool a little, then thin with hot recti- 
fied oil of turpentine, IJ gallons, and strain at once 
into a can. 

Varnish for Wood or Canvass.— Spirits of tur- 
pentine, J gallon ; asphaltum, 1 J pounds ; put them 
in an iron kettle which will fit upon a stove, and 
dissolve the gum by heat. When thoroughly dis- 
solved and a little cool, add J pint of copal varnish 
and boil linseed oil ^ pint; when cold it is ready for 
use. If a more perfect black is desired, add a little 
lampblack. 

Splendid Polish for Furniture.— Beeswax, i lb.; 
soap, 2 oz.; pearlash, 1 oz.; soft water, ^ gallon; 
boil all together until mixed; let cool, and it is 
ready for use. Apply with a soft rag, rubbing well. 

Stains. — Yellow is produced by diluted nitric 
acid. Red, by a solution of dragon's blood in spirits 
of wine. Black, by a strong solution of nitric acid. 
Purple, by a solution of sal ammoniac in nitric 
acid. Green, by a solution of verdigris in nitric 
acid. Blue, by" dipping in a hot solution of pearl- 
ash. 

Brown Stain. — Put the work near the fire, that 
it may become warm ; then take nitric acid, and 
Avith a feather pass it over the work till you find 
it changed to a fine brown, always keeping it near 
the fire until dry, when it may be polished or 
varnished. 

To Imitate Mahogany. — Let the first coat of 
painting be white lead ; the second, orange, and 
the last burnt umber or sienna, imitating the 
veins according to your taste. 



70 TRADE SECRETS. 

To Stain Red. — Boil 1 K). Brazil wood and 1 oz. 
pearlcish in 1 gallon of water, and while hot brush 
over the work until of a proper color. 

Cherry Stain. — Rain water, Ih qts.; annotto, 4 
oz.; boil in a copper kettle till the annotto is dis- 
solved; then put in a piece of potash, about half 
the size of a walnut ; keep it on the fire about half 
an hour longer, and it is ready to bottle for use. 

Black Walnut Stain. — Let the surface of the 
wood, after being thoroughly sandpapered, be washed 
with weak alum water and then treated with lin- 
seed oil, colored with burnt umber and red lead. 
The umber should be thoroughly burned, but the 
coloring matter not made too strong. It is better 
to have it rather light and renew the application 
w^hen this has sufficiently dried. Go over the sur- 
face with a sirong sizing of transparent glue ; then 
use two coats of good Copal varnish. 

Rosewood Stain. — 4 oz. logwood, and 4 oz. red- 
wood chips; boil in one gal. water; apply while 
hot, 3 or 4 coats, according to the color desired. 
For deeper color double the quantities of logwood, 
and redwood chips. 

Oil for Furniture. — Acetic acid, 1 dram ; oil of 
lavendar, I dram ; rectified spirits, | dram ; linseed 
oil, 2 oz ; mix, and it is ready for use. 

Furniture Oil. — Linseed-oil, | pint ; alkanet root, 
1 oz. ; let it heat, and then strain it, then add lac 
varnish, ^ oz. ; this is very good. 

Oil for Oiling Furniture. — Linseed oil, J pint ; 
rectified spirits, 1 oz. ; butter of antimony 2 oz. ; 
mix all together and it will be ready for use. 

Green Stain. — Strong vinegar, IJ pints ; best 
verdigris, 2 oz, ground fine; sap green, J oz; mix 
together. 



TRADTE St:CRETS. 71 

Transparent Varnish tor Wood. — Best alcohol, h 
gal. ; nice gum shellac, IJ pounds ; Place the bottle 
so it will keep a little warm, and it will dissolve 
quicker than if hot, or left cold. 

Furniture Varnish. — Pale shellac, 2J pounds ; mas- 
tic, 3J ounces ; alcohol, 5 pints ; dissolve cold stir- 
ring frequently. Very fine. 

Black Varnish for Coaches. — Amber, 16 ounces ; 
resin, 3 ounces ; asphaltum, 3 ounces ; drying lin- 
seed oil, J pint ; melt in an iron vessel ; when partly 
cooled, add oil of turpentine warmed, ^ pint, when 
it is ready for use. 

Polish for Furniture. — Alcohol, 3 ounces; muriatic 
acid, 1 ounce; linseen oil. 16 ounce; good vinegar, 
1 pint, and 3 ounces butter of antimony. Mix well 
together, putting in the vinegar last. 

Imitation of Botany Bay Wood. — Boil J pound 
of French berries (the unripe berries of Ehammus 
infectorius) in 1 quart of water, till of a deep yellow 
and while boiling hot, give two or three coats to the 
work. If a deeper color is wished, give a coat of 
logwood decoction over the yellow^ when almost dry 
form the grain with No. 8 black stain, used hot 
and when dry rust And varnish. 

Dark Mahogany Color.— 1st. Boil J pound of 
madder and 1 ounce logwood chips, in a gallon of 
water, and brush well over while hot ; when dry, 
go over the whole with pearlash-solution, 1 dram to 
the pint. 2d. Put 1 ounce dragon's blood, bruised 
into a pint of oil of turpentine ; let the bottle stand 
in a warm place, shake frequently and when dis- 
solved, steep the work in the mixture. 

Crimson Stain for Violins. — Ground Brazil wood, 
I pound; water, IJ quarts, cochineal, J ounce; boil 
the Brazil with the water for half an hour, strain, 



72 TRADE SECRETS. 

add the cochineal ; boil gently for half an hour, 
when it will be fit for use. Should you prefer a 
scarlet tint, boil J ounce of safron in a pint of water, 
and rub over the work before you stain it. 

Black Stain for Wood. — Sulphuric acid, ^ pint ; 
rain water, 1 pint ; brush over the wood and let it 
dry, when it will recieve a fine polish. 

To Improve the Color of Stains. — Nitric acid, 1 
oz.; muriatic acid, ^ teaspoonful; grain tin, J oz. ; 
rain water, 2 oz ; mix it at least 2 days before using 
and keep the bottle well corked. 

Poliskes.— Carver's Polish— White resin, 2 oz. ; 
seed-lac, 2 oz. ; spirits of wine, 1 pint ; dissolve ; it 
should be laid on warm, and avoid moisture and 
dampness when used. 

French Polish— Gum shellac, 1 oz ; gum arable, 
J oz. ; gum copal, ^ oz. ; powder and sift through a 
piece of muslin, put them in a closely corked bottle 
with 1 pint spirits of wine, in a very warm situa- 
tion, shaking every day until the gums are dis- 
solved ; then strain through muslin and cork for 
use. 

Polish for Dark Colored Woods.— Seed-lac, 1 oz. ; 
gum guaiacum, 2 drams ; drag(5n's blood, 2 drams ; 
gum mastic, 2 drams ; put in a bottle with 1 pint 
spirits of wine, cork close, expose to moderate heat 
till the gums are dissolved ; strain into a bottle for 
use, with J gill of linseed oil ; shake together. 

Water Proof Polish. — Gum benjamin, 2 oz ; gum 
sandarach, J oz. ; gum anima, J oz. ; spirits of wine, 
1 pint; mix in a closely stopped bottle, and place 
either in a sand bath or in hot water till the gums 
are dissolved, then strain off the mixture, shake it 
up with a J gill of the best clear poppy oil, and 
put it by for use. 



TRADE eECRETS. 73 

Polish.— Pinishing.— Gum shellac, 2 drams; gum 
benjamin, 2 drams ; put into ^ pint of best rectified 
spirits of wine in a bottle closely corked; keep in 
a warm place, shaking frequently until the gums 
are dissolved. When cold, shake iip with it 2 tea- 
spoonfuls of the best clear poppy oil. 



DYEING DEPARTMENT. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 

Everything should be clean. The goods should be scoured in 
soap and the soap rinsed out. Dip them in water just before putting 
them into preparations, to prevent spotting. Soft water should be 
used, snfficieni to cover the goods well — this is always laidei^stood 
where quantity is not metitioned. When goods are dyed, air, rinse 
well, and hang up to dry. Do not wring silk or merino dresses 
"when scouring or dyeing them. If cotton goods are to be dyed a 
light color, they should first be bleached. 

SILKS. 

Black. — Make a weak dye as for black on wool- 
ens ; work goods in bichromate of potash a little 
below boiling heat, then dip in the logwood in 
same w^ay ; if colored in blue vitriol, use about same 
heat. 

Orange — For one pound goods — annotto, 1 pound; 
soda 1 pound ; repeat as desired. 

Green— VERY HANDSOME.— For one pound 
goods — yellow oak bark, eight ounces; boil one-half 
hour ; turn ofif liquor from bark and add alum, six 
ounces; let stand until cold, while making this, 
color goods in blue dye-tub a light blue ; dry and 
wash; dip in alum and bark dye. If it does not 
take well, warm the dye a little. 



74 TRADE SECRETS. 

Purple. — For one pound goods. First obtain a 
light blue, by dipping in home-made dye-tub ; then 
dry ;■ dip in alum, four ounces ; with water to cover 
when little warm. If color is not full enough add 
chemic. 

Yellow, — For one pound goods — alum, three 
ounces; sugar of lead, three-forths ounces; immerse 
goods in solution 'over night ; take out, drain, and 
make a new dye with fustic, one pound; dip until 
required color is obtained. 

Crimson. — For one pound goods — alum, three 
ounces; dip at hand heat one hour; take out and 
drain while making new dj-e by boiling ten min- 
utes, cochineal, three ounces, bruised nut-galls, two 
ounces, and cream tartar, one-fourth ounce, in one 
pail of water; when little cool begin to dip, raising 
heat to boil; dip one hour, wash and dry. 

Sky Blue on Silk or Cotton.— VERY BEAUTI- 
FUL. — Give goods as much color from a solution of 
blue vitriol, two ounces, to water, one gallon, as it 
will take up in dipping fifteen minutes, then run 
it through lime water. This will make a beautiful 
and durable sky blue. 

Brown on Silk or Cotton.— VERY BEAUTIFUL. 

— After obtaining a blue color as above, run goods 
through a solution of prussiate of potash, one ounce, 
to water, one gallon. 

Light Blue. — For cold water, one gallon, dissolve 
alum, one-half tablespoon, in hot water, one teacup, 
and add to it, then add chemic, one teaspoon at 
a time to obtain the desired color — the more chemic 
the darker the color. 

An Excellent recipe for removing paint or grease 
spots from garments may be had by mixing four 
tablespoonfuls of alcohol with a tablespoonful of 



TRADE SECRETS. 75 

salt. Shake the whole together, and apply with a 
sponge or brush. 

To Remove Stains From Silk. — Salts of ammonia 
mixed with lime will take out the stains of wine 
from silk. Spirits of turpentine, alcohol and clear 
ammonia- are all good to remove the stains from 
colored silks. 

To Restore the Color of Silk— When the color 
of silk has been destroyed by any strong acid, it may 
be restored by carefully wetting the spot with a 
strong soap lather, to which a little saleratus has 
been added. When the color has been taken out 
by fruit stains ammonia will restore it. 

Varnish for Paste Board.— Marine glue, 2 parts; 
yellow gum lac, in scales, 1 part; dissolve in wood 
spirits. This varnish may be applied to paper, 
pasteboard, wood and metals ; if thick it may be 
used for glueing wood. 

To Clean Ostrich Feathers —White or light- 
tinted ones can be laid on a plate, and scrubbed 
gently with a tooth-brush, in warm soap suds, then 
well shaken out and well dried either by the hot 
sun or a good fire. At first the feather will have a 
most discouraging appearance, and a novice is apt 
to think it perfectly spoiled. But after it is thor- 
oughly dry, it should be carefully curled with a 
pen-knife or scissors blade, and it will recover all 
its former plumy softness. 

Black on Wool.— For 5 lbs. of w^ool, bichromate 
of potash 2 oz. ; ground argal, 1^ oz. ; boil together, 
and put in the w'ool; stir well, and let it remain 
in the dye 4 hours. Then take out the wool; rinse 
it slightly in clear water; then make a new dye, 
into which put logwood. If lbs. ; boil one hour, and 



76 TRADE SECRETS. 

add chamber lye, J pint, and let the wool lie in it 
all night. Wash in clear water. 

Scarlet with Cochineal. — For Yarn or Cloth. — 
For 2 lbs. of goods, cream of tartar, 1 oz. ; cochineal, 
well pulverized, J oz. ; muriate of tin, 5 oz. ; then 
boil up the dye, and enter the goods ; work them 
briskly for 10 or 15 minutes, after which boil 1^ 
hours, stirring the goods slowly while boiling; wash 
in clear water, and dry in the shade. 

Orange. — For 2J lbs. goods, muriate of tin, 3 ta- 
blespoons; argal, 2 oz. ; boil and dip 1 hour; then 
add to the dye fustic, IJ lbs. ; boil 10 minutes and 
dip J hour ; and add again to the dye, madder, J 
teacup ; dip again ^ hour. If a brighter color be 
prefered, use cochinal in place of madder ; add in 
small quantities, until pleased, about 2 oz. 

Lac Red — For 2^ lbs. goods, argal, 5 oz. ; boil a 
few minutes ; then mix fine ground lac, J lb., with 
muriate of tin, 3 lbs. ; and let them stand 2 or 3 
hours, then add half of the lac to the argal dye, 
and dip | hour ; then add the balance of the. lac, 
and dip again 1 hour ; keep the dye at a boiling 
heat, until the last half hour, when the dye may 
be cooled off. 

Snufif Brown. — Dark for cloth or wool. For 10 
pound goods, camwood, 2 pounds ; boil it 15 min- 
utes, then dip the goods for J of an hour ; take out 
the goods and add to the d\^e, fustic, 5 pounds ; 
boil 10 minutes, and dip the goods J hour ; then 
add blue vitriol, 2 oz. ; copperas, 8 oz. ; dip again J 
hour ; if not dark enough, add more copperas. 

Madder Red. — To 2 lbs. of goods, alum, 10 oz. ; 
red, or cream of tartar, 2 oz. ; put in the goods, and 
bring your kettle to a boil for J an hour ; then air 
them, and boil J hour longer ; then empty your 



TRADE SECRETS. 77 

kettle, and fill with clean water ; put in bran, J 
bushel ; make it milk-warm, and let it stand until 
the bran rises ; skim off the bran, and put in mad- 
der, 1 lb. ; put in your goods, and heat slowly until 
it boils and is done. Wash in a strong suds. 

Dark Steel Mixed.— Black wool, it may be natural 
or colored, 5 pounds; white wool, f pounds; mix 
evenly together, and it will be very nice. 

Silver Drab— Light.— For 10 lbs. goods, alum, 2 
small teaspoonfuls, and dogwood about the same 
amount ; boil well together, then dip the goods 1 
hour ; if not dark enough, add, in equal quantities, 
alum and logwood until suited. 

To Wash Woolen Goods.— To wash woolen goods 
nicely, to each pail of water used add one table- 
spoonful of ammonia, and one of beef-gall; ^wash 
out quickly, and rins6 thoroughly in warm water, 
with a very little beef-gall added. 

Wine Color. — For 2^ lbs. goods, camwood, 1 lb. ; 
boil 15 minutes, then dip the goods for ^ hour; 
boil again, and dip -J hour ; then darken with blue 
vitriol, f oz. ; if not dark enough, add copperas, 
J oz. 

Black' — For 2J pound goods. Sumach wood and 
bark together, IJ pounds ; boil J hour, and let the 
goods steep 12 hours ; then dip them in lime water, 
■| hour ; take out the goods and let them drip an 
hour ; then add to the sumach liquor, copperas 4 
oz. ; then dip another hour; then run them through 
the tub of lime water again for 15 minutes, now 
take a new dye with logwood, 1 J pounds, boil 1 
hour and dip again 3 hours ; now add bichromate 
of potash, 1 oz. to the logwood dye, and dip 1 hour. 
Wash the goods in clear cold water, and dry in the 
shade. • 



78 TRADE SECRETS. 

Blue OD Cotton. — For 10 pounds of rags, cop- 
peras, 8 oz. ; boil and dip 15 minutes ; then dip in 
strong suds, and back to the dye 2 or 3 times; 
then make a dye with prussiate of potash, 2 oz. ; 
oil of vitriol, 10 tablespoonfuls ; boil ^ hour, and 
rinse and dry. 

Chemic Blue— Light.— Take water, 2 gal. ; dis- 
solve alum, 1 tablespoonful, in hot water, 2 teacups, 
and add to it, then add chemic, 2 teaspoonfuls at a 
time, to get the desired color, for a darker color, 
use more of the chemic. 

White Beach Bark. — Slate on Woolen or Cot- 
ton.— Boil the bark in an iron kettle. Take out 
the bark when it has boiled sufficiently, then add 
enough copperas to set the dye. The more cop- 
peras you add, the darker it will become. This is 
splendid for stockings. 

Sky Blue.— For 6 lbs. goods, blue vitriol, 8 oz. ; 
boil a few minutes ; dip the goods 3 hours, then 
put them through strong lime-water. Should you 
wish a pretty brown color, put the goods through 
a solution of prussiate of potash. 

Stocking Yarn or Wool to Color.—Between 

a Blue and Purple.— For 2^ lbs. of wool, bi-chromate 
of potash, 4 oz. ; alum, 1 oz. ; dissolve them, and 
bring the water to a boil, putting in the wool, and 
boiling one hour; then throw away the dye, and 
make another dye with logwood chips, | lb., or ex- 
tract of logwood, IJ oz. ; and boil one hour. This 
also works very pretty on silk. Should you use 
logwood chips, tie them up in a bag, and boil with 
the wool or other goods. To darken the shade, use 
more logwood. 

Pink. — For 6 lbs of goods, alum, 6 oz. ; boil, and 
dip the goods one hour ; then add to the dye cream 



TRADE SECRETS. 79 

of tartar 8 oz. ; cochineal, well pulverized, 2 oz. ; 
boil well, and dip the goods, while boiling, until 
the color suits. 

Brown. — To dye woolen brown, steep in an in- 
fusion of green walnut peels. 

Carpets, rolled up during the hot weather, can 
be kept free from moths by wrapping, here and 
there between the folds, pieces of flannel dipped in 
turpentine. This is a better plan than peppering, 
as the smell soon goes ofif when the carpet is laid 
down again, and the occupants of the room are not 
all seized with apparently an attack of influenza. 

Blue. — ^or 4 lbs. of goods, alum, 10 oz. ; cream 
of tartar, 6 oz. ; boil the goods in this for one hour, 
then throw the goods into warm water, which has 
more or less of the extract of indigo in it, accord- 
ing to the depth of color desired, and boil again 
until it suits, adding more of the blue if needed. 

Purple. — For 2 J lbs. of goods, cream of tartar, 2 
oz. ; alum, 3 oz. ; cochineal, well pulverized, 1 oz. ; 
muriate of tin, J teacupful. Boil the cream of tar- 
tar, alum, and tin, 15 minutes ; then put in the 
cochineal, and boil 5 minutes ; dip the goods 2 
hours ; then make a new dye with alum, 2 oz. ; 
Brazil wood, 3 oz. ; logwood, 7 oz. ; muriate of tin, 
J teacupful, with a little chemic. 



■^s^ 



FARM DEPAR TMENT. 

Cure for Foundered Horses.— One-half pint 
of linseed oil, 1 ounce of the oil of sassafras, mix, 
and drench the horse. Sometimes it is necessary 
to repeat the dose in a day or two. 



80 TRADE SECRETS. 

Horse Colic. — One-half pint of whisky, 1 table- 
spoonful of soda ; mix the two together, and drench 
with a bottle. 

Blind Staggers. — Bleed in second bar by in- 
serting a knife at least three times, then while 
bleeding, drench with the following : One-half pint 
whisky, 1 ounce laudanum, 1 tablespoonful turpen- 
tine, water and flour, to give the consistency of 
buttermilk. Rub from head to tail, and legs also, 
with spirits turpentine, and pour two or three 
drops in each ear. 

Eye-Water for Cattle and Horses.— Alcohol, 
^ taolespoonful ; extract of lead, | teaspoonful; rain 
water, J pint. 

Cure for Chicken Cholera.— Dilute a small 
piece of bread in water, and then drop 3 drops of 
carbolic acid on the bread; then give to the af- 
fected fowl. Repeat the dose every other day, until 
two or three doses have been given. Sometimes 
one dose will be sufficient to effect a cure. Put 1 
teaspoonful of carbolic acid in one or two gallons of 
water, for the fowls to drink from. Drinking from 
this water will cause slightly affected fowls to be- 
come healthy, and prevent them from taking the 
disease. 

Remedy for Heaves.— Calcined magnesia, bal- 
sam of fir, balsam copaiba, of each, | oz. ; spirits of 
turpentine, 1 oz. ; put them into | pint best cider 
vinegar ; give, for a dose, 1 tablespoonful in his 
feed once a day for a week; then every other day 
for two or three months. Wet his feed with brine. 
He will cough more £*t first, but looser and looser 
till cured. 

Physic-Ball for Horses. — Barbadoes aloes, from 
4 to 5 or 6 drachms (according to the animal's 



TRADE SECRETS. 81 

Strength); tartrate of potassa, J drachm; ginger and 
Castile soap, each 1 drachm; oil of anise or pepper- 
mint, 10 drops; pulverize and make all into one 
ball, with thick gum solution. Feed by giving 
scalded bran instead of oats, for two days before 
giving the physic, and during its operation. 

To Tame Horses. — Take finely grated horse 
castor, oil of rhoadium and cummin ; keep them in 
separate bottles well corked ; put some of the oil of 
cummin on your hands, and approach the horse on 
windy side. He will then walk toward you, then 
rub some of the cummin on his nose, give him a 
little of the castor on food that he likes, then get 
8 or 10 drops oil of rhoadium on his tongue. You 
can then control him. 

Ring Bone and Spavin Care,— Venice turpen- 
tine, and Spanish flies, of each 2 oz, ; enphorbi- 
um and aqua-ammonia, of each 1 oz. ; red percipi- 
tate, ^ oz. ; corrosive sublimate, J oz. ; lard, 1^ pounds. 
Pulverize all, and put into the lard ; simmer slowly 
over coals, not scorching or burning ; and pour off, 
free ef sediment. For ring bones, cut off the hair, 
and rub the ointment well into the lumps once in 
48 hours. For spavins, once in 24 hours for three 
mornings. Wash well previous to each application 
with suds, rubbing over the place with a smooth 
stick, to squeeze out a thick yellow matter. 

Linament for Sweeny.— Alcohol, and spirits 
turpentine, of each 4 oz. ; camphor, gum pulverized 
cantharides, and capsicum, of each J oz. ; oil of 
spike, 2J oz, ; mix. Bathe this linament in with a 
hot iron, and a certain cure will follow. 

Founder Cured. — Boil or steam oat straw for 
half an hour, then wrap it around the horse's leg 



82 TRADE SECRETS. 

quite hot, cover up with wet woolen rags to keep 
in the steam ; in 6 hours renew the application ; 
take 1 gal. of blood from neck veins, and give 1 
quart linseed oil. 

Bruises and Strains on Horses.— 1 oz. ether ; 
hartshorn, 2 oz. ; turpentine, 1 oz. ; pint lard ; mix, 
and rub the places affected. 

Cure for Hog Cholera. — One part coal oil, and 
two parts lard, and simmer together on a stove. 
When cold, sprinkle over the hogs. 

Staggers- — Give a mess four times a week, com- 
posed of bran, ^ gal. ; sulphur, J tablespoonful ; 
saltpetre, J spoonful; boiling sassafras tea, 1 pint; 
assafoetida'j oz. ; keep the horse from cold water 8 
hours afterwards. 

Bots in Horses. — Give the horse, first, 1 quart 
new milk, and 1 pint molasses ; 15 minutes after- 
wards, give 1 quart very strong sage tea ; 30 min- 
utes after giving sage tea, give 3J pints (or enough 
to physic) of curriers' oil. The molassas and milk 
makes the bots let go their hold, the tea puckers 
them up, and the oil carries them completely away. 
It will cure the worst of cases. 

Cough. — Dont feed musty hay; feed roots and 
laxative food; sprinkle human urine on the fodder, 
or cut up cedar boughs and mix with the grain ; 
or boil a small quantity of flaxseed, and mix it in 
a wash of scalded bran, adding a few ounces of sugar, 
molasses or honey. Give lukewarm. Should the 
animal have signs of heavs, put a spoonful of 
ground ginger once a day in his feed, and have 
him drink freely of lime water. 

Colic Cure. — Bleed freely at the horse's mouth ; 
then take 1 pound raw cotton, wrap it around a 
coal of fire, so as to exclude the air; when it be- 



TRADE SECRETS. 83 

gins to smoke, hold it under his nose till he be- 
comes easy. 

Scratches.— Shave the hair close, then wash the 
legs in strong soap-suds or urine, or wash with 
warm vinegar saturated with salt ; afterwards rub 
all over the parts with hogs-lard. 

To Cure Distemper,— Take 1 gallon of blood 
from the neck vein ; then administer sassafras oil, 
1 ounce. Certain and quick cure. 

Cure for Foot Rot.— One poound blue vitriol, 
half pound of verdigris, one pint of linseed oil, and 
one quart of tar ; the vitrol and verdigris to be pul- 
verized fine. The oil and tar if allowed to dry on 
the feet, form a coating which aids to prevent the 
application from being washed away by moisture. 
The sheep should be kept out of water, manure, 
etc., untill the treatment has had time to produce 
its full effect. 

Scratches or " Grease Heel/'— (First stages. 
Sure cure.) — Glycerine, one-half pint; chloride of* 
zinc, one-half ounce ; water, six quarts ; mix, apply 
a cloth wet with the above to the parts, and as 
warm apply another. Keep this up until all heat 
and inflamation has deperted; if good results do not 
follow, it is because the work has not been thoroughly 
done. When, it has further advanced, and cracks 
and ulcerations are present, the above lotion is not 
strong enough, and the following must be substi- 
tuted, and used in the same manner.- Chloride of 
of zinc, 1 ounce ; creosote, 4 fluid ozs., strong solu- 
tion of oak bark, one gallon. Mix. 

Cure for Foot Bot, No. 2 in Sheep.— Mix 2 

oz. of the best honey, 1 oz of burnt alum, reduced to 

powder, and J pound of armenian bole; then add 
the train oil and alum. 



84 TRADE SECRET8. 

Bone Spavins. — Corrosive sublimate, quicksilver 
and iodine, of each 1 oz. ; rub the quicksilver and 
iodine together ; then add the sublimate, rub enough 
lard to mix, rubbing them thoroughly. Shear off 
the hair the size of the bone enlargement ; grease 
all around it, but not where the hair is shaved off; 
this prevents the action of the medicine, except on 
the spavin. Then rub in as much of the paste as 
will lie on a dime, each morning, for three or four 
mornings. In from 7 to 8 days the whole spavin 
will come out ; then wash the wound with suds for 
an hour or so, to remove the poisonous effects of 
the paste; afterwards heal up the sore with any 
good healing salve ; keeping the sore covered while 
it is healing. 

Foot Rot In Sheep, No. 3.— The writer has 
twice cured a flock completely by 1 application of 
blue vitriol. In the first place each sheep had its 
feet pared for the purpose of exposing every part 
of the flesh in the least affected by the disease. 
The sheep was then placed in a tub of saturated 
solution of blue vitriol and hot water 3 or 4 inches 
deep, and held there by an assistant. A second 
was prepared in the same way and placed beside 
the first one in the water. When the third was 
ready, the first was taken out, and so on. Each 
stood at least 10 minutes in the sofution which 
was kept constantly hot by dipping out and replent- 
ishing from the boiling kettle. The sheep were 
then placed in a dry situation, and they proved to 
be completely cured."^ When the foot is extensively 
disorganized and a powerful caustic is required to 
remove the dead structure, butter or chloride of an- 
timony should be used. 

Best Harness Oil in the World.— To each 
pint of neats-foot oil add one tablespoonful of lamp- 



TRADE SECRETS. 85 

black, and two ounces of beeswax. This gives the 
harness an appearance of new leather. 

How to Tell if a Horse is Blind.— Place the 

horse in a dark stable, and about twenty minutes 
after lead him out into the bright sunlight. If 
very slight or no contraction of the pupil takes 
place, the horse is totally blind. One eye may con- 
tract, and the other not, if only one eye is affected. 
The same test can be applied at night, by using a 
bright light, and placing it quite close to the eye. 
The above is an infallible test. 

Ringbone. — Pulverized cantharides, oils of spike, 
organum. amber, cedar, Barbadoes tar, and Bristol 
oil, of each 1 oz. ; oil of wormwood, ]^ oz. ; spirits 
turpentine, 2 oz. ; common potash, J oz. ; nitric acid, 
8 oz. ; sulphuric acid, 2 oz. ; lard, 1 J lbs. Melt the 
lard, and slowly add the acids ; stir well, and add 
the other articles, stirring til cold. Clip off the 
Irnir, and apply by cutting and heating in. In 
about three days, or when it has ceased running, 
wash off with soap suds, and apply again. 

Physic for Cattle. — Barbadoes aloes from 2 to 3 
drams ; tartrate of potassa, one-half dram ; ginger 
and cattle soap, each one dram ; oil of anise, or 
peppermint, ten drops ; pulverize and add glauber- 
salts, eight ounces ; dissolve all in gruel and give 
as a drench. 

**Grease Heal '* — L3'e made from wood ashes, 
and boil white oak bark in it till it is quite strong, 
both in lye and bark ooze ; when it is cold, it is 
ready for use. Wash off the horse's legs with cas- 
tile soap; when dry apply the above lye with a 
swab fastened on a long stick to keep cut of his 
rfeach, as the smart may cause the animal to kick, 
it is a sure cure, but it brings off the hair. To re- 



86 TRADE SECRETS. 

store the hair after the cure is made, make and 
apply a salve by stewing elder bark in old bacon ; 
then form the salve by adding a little resin, ac- 
cording to the amount of oil when stewed, or one- 
fourth pound resin to each pound of oil. 

German Stable Linament.— Oil of turpentine, 
aqua ammonia, and oil of spike, each 1 ounce ; sweet 
oil, and oil of amber, each three-fourth ounce ; oil 
of organum, one-half ounce. Mix and it is ready 
for use. Very fine. 

Gaps in Chickens. — I found week saft water a 
sure cure. I have not had a case for years, for I 
give my chickens a little salt in their feed or drink 
regularly Winter and summer. I think it good to 
keep them healthy which is better than waiting 
for them to get sick. Try as much as a corn grain 
in a teaspoon of water. 

To Remove Lumps in Cow Teats.— Take 

poke-root and chop it up fine and beat into pumice; 
take a teacupful and put in a quart of meal, and 
feed it to a cow whose udder has lumss in it, and 
they are removed at once. 

A Breeder of Poultry says: "Every spring I 
procure a quantity of cedar boughs and scatter them 
plentifully in and around the hen house. This is 
all that is necessar}*, as the odor of cedar keeps 
away the lice. ^ 

Lice on Fowls. — The surest way to destroy all 
lice on chickens or stock of any kind, is by using 
bisulphate of carbon Hang to the roosts of fowls 
a few small bottles of the above, taking out the 
corks ; leave open a ventalator or two and it will 
do no harm to stock of any kind. When all the 
stock is out close all ventalation, and in a few hours 
there will not be a louse left. It is cheap ; 25 cts. 



TRADE SECRETS. 87 

worth will clear a barn and chickens and everything 
else from lice in 3 days. A light must not be put 
very near as it is very inflamable. 

Sloan's Horse Ointment— 4 oz. rosin ; 4 oz. 
bees-wax ; honey 2 oz. ; mix slowly and gently let 
come to a boil ; then add nearly 1 pint, spirits of 

turpentine ; remove and stir until cool. Nothing to 
equal it for horse flesh, cracked hoofs and human flesh. 

Merchants Gargling Oil —Take 2J gallons of 
linseed oil ; 2J gallons spirits turpentine ; 1 gallon 
western petroleum ; 8 oz. liquor potass ; 1 oz. sap 
green ; stir all together, and it is read}^ to apply 
for use. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



To Drive Away Flies. — Essence of pennyroyal freely 
sprinkled about a house will drive flies away and 
keep the house free from their visits. 

For Making Cologne Water, — One quart of alcohol, 
quarter of an ounce of the oil of lavender, and a quar- 
ter of an ounce of the oil of rosemary. 

Blue Ink. — Take soft Prussian blue and oxalic acid, 
in equal parts, powder them finely and then add soft 
water to make the desired shade of color. 

Oil to Make Hair Curl. — Olive, 1 lb.; oil of ariganum, 
1 drachm ; oil of rosemar}', IJ drachms. 

Red Ink. — Carmine, 12 grains; spirits of ammonia, 3 
ounces ; heat and add powdered gum arable, 18 grains, 
and stir till dissolved. 



88 TRADE SECRETS. 

To prevent Grass groiving in Walks. — Make a strong 
brine with common salt, and pour it hot on to the 
places where you wish to kill the grass. 

To clean Paint from Stone. — Use a solution of sal 
soda or concentrated lye. 

Sealing for Bottles, etc. — Glue mixed with glycerine 
is liquid while hot, but an elastic solid when cold, 
and makes a very good sealing for bottles, etc. 

To prevent Rust in Stoves and Furnaces in Summer. — 
Put in some quicklime, and let it slack gradually, 
and it will entirely prevent rust on the inside of 
stoves and furnaces. 

To preserve the Soles of Boots and Shoes. — One pair 
of uppers to boots and shoes will usually outwear 
two or three pairs of soles, and, as it usually costs 
one dollar to get a pair of boots half-soled, it will 
certainly pay to spend ten cents to fix the soles of 
your boots and shoes so that they will wear nearly 
twice as long, and, at the same time, be water-proof, 
ffill the soles of your boots and shoes with boiled 
linseed oil, working in all that you possibly can, 
and when the oil has hardened, the same as in paint, 
your boots will be water-proof, so far as the soles are 
concerned, and will wear nearly twice tm long. 
Copal varnish is better still than linseed oil, but 
costs more. You must be very careful about getting 
linseed oil or varnish on the upper leather, for it 
will harden it so that it will crack. Use neat's-foot 
oil with a little bees-wax melted in it for your up- 
per leather, and it will keep the leather soft and 
render it almost water-proof. 

To keep milk sxoeet. — Milk can be kept sweet for some 
time by adding a little fine salt, or a little grated 
horse-radish, or a little carbonate of magnesia, any 



TRADE SECRETS. 8^ 

one of which will retard the formation of lactic in the 
milk. Lactic acid forms very rapidly in milk when 
the temperature is from seventy to ninety degrees 
Fahrenheit. 

To clean Coffee and Spice Mills. — Grind a tablespoon- 
ful of rice through the mill and it will be thoroughly 
cleaned and ready to grind a different spice. 

Soda Water. — For the syrup take 2 lbs. sugar ; 2 
ounces tartaric acid ; over this pour three pints boil- 
ing water. When cold, add whites of three eggs 
beaten stiff, one-half cup of flour stirred very smoothly 
in eggs, one-half ounce winter-green or other flavor- 
ing. Put two tablespoonfuls of this S3^rup in a glass, 
fill nearly full of water, then add one-half teaspoon 
of soda. 

To 'protect Iron and Steele from Rust. — Take good fresh 
lard one pound; rosin four ounces ; melt together, and 
stir well. Keep a cloth saturated with this mixture 
and rub it over any thing that you wish to protect 
from rust. The rosin prevents the lard from becom- 
ing rancid and coroding the metal, and it also makes 
a very adhesive mixture that is not easily washed 
off by rain. 

To prevent Leakages. — Make a composition of four 
pounds of rosin, one pint boiled linseed oil, and two 
ounces of red lead. Apply it hot with a brush where 
the leaks occur around chimneys, dormer windows, 
etc., or for making water casks tight. 

Coloring Candy. — Here is a coloring formula used 
by professional candy makers : one-half ounce cochi- 
neal, one-half ounce cream of tartar, one-half ounce 
alum, one-half ounce salts of tartar ; have your drug- 
gist mix and pulverize them very finely; cork tight 
and keep in a dry place. When needed for use mix 



90 TRADE SECRETS. 

a little into a paste with boiling water. This is very- 
nice for coloring candies, cakes, creams, jellies, syrups 
of canned fruits, etc. 

Hard Soap. — Six pounds sal soda; four gallons of 
water. Put this together and let it come to the boil- 
ing point; let it settle and pour off; add one-fourth 
of a pound of borax and six pounds of grease ; then 
pour in dripping tins; let cool and cut in bars. 

Paste which will adhere to any substance. — Sugar of 
lead, one and a half ounce; alum, one and a half 
ounce ; gum arable, two and a half ounces ; wheat 
flour, or rye flour, one pound ; water, sufficient quan- 
tity. Dissolve the gum arable in two quarts of 
warm water ; when cold, mix in the flour and add 
the sugar of lead and alum dissolved in water. 
Place the whole on the fire, and stir constantly till 
it shows signs of boiling. Let it cool, and the paste 
is made. If the paste is too thick, add boiling water 
to bring it to the proper consistency. 

Chocolate Candy. — One cup of grated chocolate, one 
cup of milk, one cup of molasses, butter size of an egg, 
and one cup of sugar. Boil an hour. 

Kalsomining. — Kalsomining for walls and ceilings, 
is made by boiling one-half pound of white glue in 
two gallons of water, and then adding five pounds 
of sifted Paris w^iite and a very little bluing ; then 
strain through coarse open cloth. It must be put 
on hot. 

Cement jor preventing Leaks about Chimneys. — Dry 
sand, one part ; ashes, two parts ; clay, dried and 
pulverized, three parts. All to be pulverized and 
mixed into a paste with linseed oil. Apply it when 
soft, and when it becomes hard, water will have tio 
effect upon it. 



TRADE SECRETS. 91 

Mortar. — The usual way of making mortar to use in 
laying up brick and stone walls, is to throw in some 
sand, some lime, and some water, and mix it up and use 
it right awaj^ ; and if it happens to be good, all right ; 
but if it happens to crumble to pieces, w'hy, of course, 
the lime was poor, or the sand was not good. Four 
parts coarse sand and three parts fine sand, with one 
part quicklime, well mixed, w4th but little water, 
and allowed to stand for one or two days, makes a 
mortar which soon becomes as hard as the bricks it 
unites, and about as durable. 

To reraove Grease. — Aqua ammonia, 1 oz. ; soft water, 
1 pint ; (ialtpetre, J teaspoonful ; shaving soap, cut in 
thin shavings, ^ oz. ; then mix altogether, let stand 
until the soap is dissolved and it is ready for use. 
There is nothing better for removing grease or dirt. 

To clean Blankets. — When soiled they should be 
washed, and not scoured. Shake the dust from them, 
plunge them into plenty of hot soap-suds, let them 
lie till the hands can be borne in the water, wash 
quickly, rinse in new clean hot suds, shake thorough- 
ly, stretch well, dry, and they will be as nice as new. 

To wash black Calico. — After boiling 3'our white 
clothes, take a portion of the boiling suds and strain, 
that there may be no lint in it, put in the garment, 
and let it boil five or ten minutes ; then strain a part 
of the suds water, put the dress in and let it stand a 
few minutes. Rinse well, up and down, wring out, 
and rinse in cold water. Thus you have a clean dress 
without rubbing, and I have never known them to 
fade when washed in this way. Use no starch. 

To purify RooTns. — Dissolve a few spoonfuls of chlo- 
ride of lime in a saucer, and place in the apartment. 
Carbolic acid is also a good disinfectant. 



92 TRADE SECRETS. 

To keep Cider sweet. — Put to a barrel of new cider a 
gill of white mustard seed. This will prevent it from 
becoming hard and sour for many months. If you 
wish to keep it from fermenting, put into the barrel 
a bag containing pulverized charcoal. Treated in 
this way it will not possess any intoxicating quali- 
ties, and improves by age. In bottling cider, put in 
each bottle three or four raisins to make it brisk. 

To wash colored Linens. — A tablespoon ful of black 
pepper put in the first water in which gray and bufif 
linens are washed will keep them from spotting. It 
will also generally keep the colors of black or colored 
cambrics or muslins from running, and does not hard- 
en the water. 

Fi7'e Kindlings. — From Corn Cobs, etc. — Get a few 
gallons of heavy oil that runs from the still after 
the illuminating oil has been taken off, oil that 
contains a large amount of paraffine wax. It costs 
about ten cents a gallon at the refineries, and is 
quite solid in cold weather. Melt the oil in a kettle, 
and take a handful of cobs and dip them in oil about 
half way and throw them down and take more cobs. 
You can soon prepare kindlings for all winter. 
Parties living where they can not obtain such oil can 
make fire kindlings by taking twenty pounds of rosin 
and ten pounds of lard, or any grease, and melting 
together, and dipping cobs in as above. 

Face Preparations. — Never use any preparation on 
your face that contains any of the preparations of 
lead, zinc, or bismuth, for they all paralyze the 
nerves of the skin, and in time give the skin the 
appearance of tanned leather. The oxide of bismuth 
is used a great deal in face preparations, for it pro- 
duces a nice appearance at first, but it soon paralyzes 
the nerves of the skin so as to give the face a wrinkled 



TRADE SECRETS. 93 

and leathery appearance, and the person is obliged 
to use more and more of it or some other preparation 
to cover up the defeot. Pulverized starch, carbonate 
of magnesia, or powdered French chalk, are as harm- 
less, perhaps, as any thing that is used on the face. 

To destroy Insects on Plants. — Take one-fourth pound 
quassia chips and boil in one gallon of water, and 
when cold strain through cloth and apply the liquid 
to the plants with a watering-pot, or syringe. Tomato 
leaves boiled up, and the water applied to plants, 
will drive away insects. A weak solution of chloride 
of lime is sometimes used to destroy insects on plants. 
Put a small quantity of chloride of lime into water, 
stir well, and let it settle, and use the clear liquor. 

Salting Butter. — One-half ounce of salt to the pound 
of butter is the rule for salting adopted by the makers 
of the most celebrated lump butter, which always 
sells for a fancy price. 

To keep Oil Cloths looking well. — Wash them every 
two weeks with equal parts of skim milk and water. 
Never use any soap in washing oil cloths, and do not 
scrub them with a brush. Wash them with a soft 
flannel and use luke-warm water. Once in two or 
three months rub them with boiled linseed oil, using 
but little oil, and rub it well in with a rag and polish 
with a piece of old linen or cotton cloth. Oil cloths 
treated in this way will last for years, and look nice 
all the time. 

White-wash. — Very nice for Rooms. — Whiting, 4 
pounds ; common glue, 2 ounces ; stand glue in cold 
water over night ; mix whiting with cold water; heat 
glue till dissolved, and pour it hot into the former. 
Make of consistency to apply with common white- 
wash brush. 



94 TRADE SECRETS. 

To paint an old House. — Take 3 gallons water and 1 
pint flaxseed ; boil half an hour ; take it off and add 
water enough to make four gallons ; let it stand to 
settle ; pour off the water in a pail, and put in enough 
of Spanish white to make it as thick as white-wash ; 
then add i pint linseed oil; stir it well, and apply 
with a brush. If the whiting does not mix readily, 
add more water. Flaxseed having the nature of oil is 
better than glue, and will not wash off as readily. 

House Painting. — Lead ground in oil for inside work 
should be mixed as follows : To one quart of boiled 
linseed oil add one gill of Japan dryer and one pint of 
spirits of turpentine ; mix together, and use for thin- 
ning your lead. When the lead is nearly thin enough 
to spread with a brush, you can add colors to make 
any shade you may desire. 

For stone color, use raw umber. 

For drabs, use burnt umber. 

For straw color, use chrome yellow. 

For cream color, use chrome yellow and Venetian red. 

For brown, use lamp-black and Venetian red. 

For pink, use vermillion. 

For blue, use Prussian-blue. 

For plum color, add a little vermillion to your blue. 

For green, use chrome green. 

For lead color, use lamp-black. 

Burnt and raw sienna make warm neutral tints, 
ground work for graining, etc. 

For outside painting do not use any spirits of tur- 
pentine, and use only about half the quantity of 
Japan dryer. 

All of the above colors can be bought ground in oil, 
put up in small cans. 

To hill Knots before Painting. — A mixture of glue 
size and red lead, or shellac dissolved in alcohol and 



TRADE SECEETS. 95 

mixed with red lead, or gutta-percha dissolved in 
ether, will, either of them, make a good coating for 
knots, but will not stand the sunshine, which will 
'draw the pitch through the paint. The best method 
is to cover the knot with oil size, and lay a leaf of 
silver over it. 

To hill Grease Spots before Painting. — Wash over 
smoky or greasy parts with saltpetre, or very thin 
lime white-wash. If soap-suds are used, they must 
be washed off thoroughly, as they prevent the paint 
from drying hard. 

Measuring Hay. — To find the ntimberof tons in long 
or square stacks, the following is the rule : Multiply 
the length in yards by the width in yards, and that 
by half the height in yards, and divide the product by 
15. In circular stacks, multiply the square of the cir- 
cumference in yards by four times the height in yards, 
and divide by 100. The quotient will be the number 
of cubic yards in the stack. Then divide by 15 to get 
the number of tons. 

For Removing Grease Spots from Carpets. — Use finely 
powdered clay, free from sand or grit, and per- 
fectly dry; spread it over the grease spots, and rub 
it well with the hand. Next, tack a piece of muslin 
or paper over the clay, to prevent its being brushed 
off or scattered, and let it remain on, say one week. 
If the first application does not extract all the grease, 
make another. When a carpet has had hard service, 
and is dingy and faded, dust it as follows : Brush or 
sweep all the dust out ; then, with a scrubbing brush, 
go over the entire surface, a small portion at a time, 
with a mixture consisting of ammonia, borax, ox-gall 
and water. Use a tablespoonful each of liquid am- 
monia, ox-gall and powdered borax to one quart of 
warm water. As fast as a portion of the carpet is 



9C TRADE SECRETS. 

scrubbed, it should be wiped over with a clean woolen 
cloth. Of course, all grease spots ought to be removed 
before this scrubbing begins. Carpets treated in the 
manner described will appear clean and bright, tilmost 
as good as new. 

Bihhons and Delicate Colored Silks should be put 
away for preservation in brown paper. The bleaching 
powder used in the manufacture of brown paper some- 
times produces discoloration, provided the silk and 
paper become the least bit damp. 

Flowers. — It is claimed that the color of flowers 
can be greatly improved and beautified by covering 
the earth in the pot one-fourth inch thick with pul- 
verized charcoal. Try it. Mix a little sal soda or 
saltpetre in water, and it will preserve flowers much 
longer than when nothing but water is used. Flowers 
may be preserved for a long time by dipping them 
very carefully, as soon as gathered, in a perfectly clear 
solution of gum arabic water. Allow them to drain 
for five minutes, and arrange them in vases as you 
wish. The gum forms a very thin coating on the 
flowers and stems, and will preserve them for a long 
time. 

Butter, Lard and Grease of that kind can be re- 
moved from silk and other goods by placing it between 
two pieces of blotting paper and pressing it with a 
warm flat-iron ; also by rubbing in dry fullers' earth 
to absorb the grease, and brushing it out and repeat- 
ing the process. Pulverized French chalk is also good 
for the same purpose. 

Fruit Stains are often very easily removed, and at 
other times they are almost indelible. Lemon juice 
will often remove the stain. Tartaric acid is also 
good. Sometimes a weak solution of chloride of lime 
will be suflicient to remove the stain. 



TRADE SECRETS. 97* 

Bleaching Solution. — Take sal soda, three pounds ; 
chloride of lime, one pound;, water, one gallon. Boil 
the sal soda in the water ten or fifteen minutes, or till 
it is thoroughly dissolved ; then remove from the fire 
and stir in the chloride of lime. When cool and 
thoroughly settled, turn off the clear liquor into a 
jug, cork tightly, and set in a cool place. Use for 
removing fruit stains, etc., from white linen and cot- 
ton goods. 

To Wash Calico Without Fading. — Infuse 3 gills of 
salt in 4 quarts of water. Put in the calico while the 
solution is hot, and leave until the latter is cold. It 
is said that in this way the colors are rendered perma- . 
nent and will not fade by subsequent washing. 

To Wash Woolen Goods nicely, to each pail of water 
used add one tablespoonful of ammonia and one of beef- 
gall, wash out quickly and rinse thoroughly in warm 
water with a very little beef-gall added. 

When the Color of Silk has been destroyed by an}^ 
strong acid, it may be restored by carefully wetting 
the spot with a strong soap lather, to which a little 
saleratus has been added. When the color has been 
taken out by fruit stains ammonia will restore it. 

Washing Colored Clothes. — Colored articles should be 
scalded ; neither should they ever be allowed to freeze; 
for the colors might be irreparably injured. They 
should not be sprinkled and allowed to lie damp over 
night. They should not be ironed with a very hot 
iron. Pink and green colors will frequently change 
in color as soon as a hot iron is passed over them. 

Reviving Kid Gloves. — To revive old kid gloves, make 
a thick mucilage by boiling a handful of flaxseed; 
add a little dissolved soap ; then, when the mixture 
colors, with a piece of white flannel wipe the gloves, 



$8 TRADE SECRETS. 

previously fitted to the hand ; use only enough to take 
off the dirt without wetting through the glove. 

Lace Curtains — Should never be ironed. Wash and 
starch them, using in the rinsing water a tablespoon- 
ful of powdered borax. This makes them very stiff. 
When wet spread on a sheet, either on the floor or 
bed, and pin down every two or three inches. Let 
them dry for several days and they will look as good 
as new. 

To Whiten Old Flannel. — Make a suds of hard soap 
and soft water ; dissolve a teaspoonful of borax and 
put in the suds ; put the flannel in the suds and let it 
lie a few minutes, then wash and rinse ; have ready 
some cloths dipped in melted brimstone, and wound 
on sticks ; two will be sufficient ; put them in a 
candlestick, or anything to hold them in an upright 
position ; hang the flannel in a barrel, so that the 
smoke can come up through the middle and around 
it ; light the brimstone candles and set them in the 
bottom of the barrel and cover closely. If carefully 
done, they will come out nearly as nice as new. 

The Right Way to Brush Velvet. — The art of remov- 
ing lint, dust and light matter adhering to velvet 
consists in the proper mode of managing the brush. 
Take a hat-brush — not too soft, but having the bristles 
elastic, and returning at once to their original state 
after being pressed aside — hold firmly under the palm 
of the hand, in the direction of the arm, and with 
the bristles dowDward, and pressing them first into 
the substance of the velvet, then twist around the 
arm, hand, and brush together, as on an axis, without 
moving them backward or forward. The foreign mat- 
ter will thus be drawn up and flirted out of the flock 
without injury to the substance of the velvet ; and 
the brush must be lifted and placed in a similar man- 



TRADE SECRETS. 99 

ner over every part required to be brushed. By this 
means velvet v^^ill be improved, instead of deteriorated, 
and will last for years. 

To Prevent Potatoes from Shriveling up in Spring and 
Summer. — Take the potatoes early in the spring before 
they begin to sprout, and put them into a tub or bar- 
rel, and pour boiling hot water on them, and let them 
stand till cold, then spread them away in a cool place. 
The hot water kills the eye, or germ of the potato, 
and prevents its sprouting and absorbing the sub- 
stance of the potato. This method has been in use 
by a few persons for some years, but we believe this 
is the first time it has been published for the benefit 
of all. 

To Prevent Moldiness. — Nearly all of the essen- 
tial oils will prevent moldiness in bookg, etc. 
Oil of sassafras, oil of cloves, oil of lavender, oil 
of cedar, oil of peppermint, or almost any of the 
essential oils rubbed on the shelves of book-cases, in 
very small quantity, will prevent moldiness of books. 

Cernent for Stopping Cracks in Jars. — Take equal 
quantities of white lead and fine white sand, and 
as much boiled linseed oil as will make it of the 
consistency of putty; in a few weeks it will become 
as hard as stone. 

Red Wash for Bricks. — To remove the green that 
gathers on bricks, pour over them boiling water 
in which any vegetables, not greasy, have been 
boiled. Repeat for a few days, and green will dis- 
appear. For the red wash, meli 1 ounce of glue in a 
gallon water ; while hot add alum size of egg, J pound 
Venetian red, 1 pound Spanish brown. Try it ; if 
too light, add more red and brown. If too dark, 
water. 



100 TRADE SECRETS. 

Moss on Roofs — If moss is allowed to accumulate 
on shingled roofs, it will soon rot out the shingles, 
and, of course, spoil the roof. If every new-shingled 
roof was thoroughl}^ whitewashed with whitewash 
made from fresh slaked lime, moss would not 
accumulate, and the roof would last many years 
longer for the trouble. When moss has accumulated, 
dust on plenty of fresh slaked lime on your roof just 
before a rain, and the moss will soon slide otf. 

Stove Cement. — Moisten fine iron filings with a 
strong water solution of salammoniac. . A little sul- 
phur is sometimes added, to make the cement harden 
quicker, but it is better without it. 

To Mend Iron Pots. — Mix finely sifted lime with 
some white of an egg, till a thin kind of paste is 
formed, then add some iron filings. Apply this to the 
fracture, and the vessel will be found nearly as sound 
as ever. 

A Cheap Mouse-Trap. — Take the bowl of a clean clay 
pipe and fill it with cheese ; put it under the edge of 
a glass tumbler in such a manner that a slight touch 
will cause the tumbler to slip ofif— the bait and the 
mouse of course underneath. This arrangement will 
catch more mice than an}^ other trap at the cost of one 
cent. 

To Mahe Leather Varnish. — To 1 quart of strong 
alcohol add one-half pound of gum shellac, 1 oz. resin, 
and one-fourth oz. of camphor, set in a warm place with 
frequent stirring for several days, or until all dis- 
solved ; then add 2 oz. lamp black mixed with a little 
alcohol — and it is ready for use and as good as the 
best. If too thick, thin with alcohol. 

A Cheap Filter. — For a cheap filter, to purify cistern, 
■water, place on the perforated bottom of a box a piece 
of flannel, and on this some coarsely-powdered -char- 



TKADE SECRETS. 101 

coal, then coarse river sand, and cover tlie whole with 
sandstone broken into very small pieces. 

Never paper a wall over old paper and paste. Al- 
ways scrape down thoroughly. Old paper can be got 
off by dampening with saleratus and water. Then 
go over all the cracks of the wall with plaster of 
Paris, and finally put on a wash of a weak solution of 
carbolic acid. The best paste is made out of rye 
flour, with two ounces of glue dissolved in each quart 
of paste ; half an ounce of powdered borax improves 
the mixture. 

To Clean Engravings. — Place the engraving on a 
smooth board with a sheet of clean paper between, 
damp the picture on both sides with a sponge and 
clean water; then soak it well with the following 
solution, applied with a clean sponge: Water, 1 pt., 
chloride of lime, 4 ozs., oxalic acid, 1 oz. This imparts 
a fine wdiite appearance to colored prints, but it must 
not be applied to water colors in any case, as it will 
certainly destroy them. 

How to Clean Wall Piper. — To clean wall paper take 
off the dust with a soft cloth. With a little flour and 
water make a lump of veiA^ stiff dough, and rub the 
wall gently downward, taking the length of the arm 
each stroke, and in this wa}- go round the room. As 
the dough becomes dirty cut the soiled parts off. In 
the second round commence the stroke a little above 
Avhere the last one ended, and be very careful not to 
cross the paper or to go up again. Ordinary papers 
cleaned in this way will look fresh and bright and 
almost as gotxl as new; Some papers, however, and 
these most expensive ones, will not clean nicely; and 
in order to ascertain whether a paper can be cleaned 
nicely it is best to try it in some obscure corner 
where it will not be noticed if the result is unsatis- 



102 TRADE SECRETS. 

factory. If there be any broken places in the wall, 
fill them up with a mixture of equal parts of plaster 
of paris and silver-sand, made into a paste with a lit- 
tle water ; then cover the place with a little piece of 
paper like the rest, if it can be had. 

To keep Butter in Summer. — Put the butter in a dish 
with some cool water and turn a large porous flower- 
pot over the butter. The evaporation will keep the 
butter cool and solid. If there is a wet cloth laid on 
the flower- pot it will be better. 

Another VQvy good way to keep butter fresh in the 
hottest weather is to make a strong salt brine and sink 
the butter under it by turning a porous pot, as above, 
over it. The writer has tasted butter kept this way 
4 months of the warmest weather and it was sweet 
and fresh. 

Acid Stains can generally be removed by the use of 
aqua ammonia. Chloroform will often restore the col- 
or where it has been destroyed by acids. Aqua am- 
monia will remove the stain of iodine from the akin 
or clothing. 

To Remove Ink Stains from cloth, dip the stain into hot 
fat, lard or tallow, and w4ien cold wash out in hot 
water, and it will usually remove the stain. 

To Remove Stains, spots, and mildew from furniture. 
Take of 98 per cent, alcohol J pt.; pulverized rosin and 
gum shellac, of each 1 dram. Let these cut in the al- 
cohol ; then add linseed oil, J pint ; shake well, and 
apply with a sponge, or cotton flannel, rubbing it well 
after the application, which gives a beautiful polish. 
To take Stains jrom the Hands. — Wash the hands in 
soap and water, in which some pearlash is dissolved. 

Sun Burn. — A cosmetic made from elder flowers, 
steeped in boiling water, and then suffered to cool, is 
excellent for sun burn. 



TRADE 8ECRETa, 103 

Iron Rust Spots on cloth can be removed by rubbing 
on lemon juice, and putting the cloth in the sun to 
dry, and then rinse with clear water, and repeat the 
process if it is not all out. 

To Drive Cockroaches and Insects from a Building. — 
Sprinkle chloride of lime into their holes and places 
of resort, and they will leave at once. 

Hair Brushes that have become soft by long use can 
be stiffened by cleaning the bristle thoroughly with 
a little bicarbonate of soda and water, rinsing well, 
and then soaking the bristle in cold alum water for a 
few hours and then drying. It will make an old brush 
about as good as new. 

Wet Boots can be rapidly and thoroughly dried by 
filling them at night with dry oats. The oats should 
be very dry, and then they will take up the moisture 
rapidly without hardening the leather. 

To Clean Glass Bottles, Decanters, etc. — Put in a hand- 
ful of fine sand, and use soap and warm water and 
shake it around thoroughly. It will have do be a very 
dirty bottle that you can not clean rapidly in this 
way. 

Ice Cream. — 1 pint of milk. Into a small portion, 
stir 2 tablespoons of flour, or if you have rich cream, 
only 1 tablespoon of flour. Put milk in rice-boiler. 
When it boils stir in flour. Strain ; when cool, stir 
in cream whipped light. Sweeten with I cup sugar, 
flavor and freeze. Very nice. 

Measuring Heaps. — If the heap be round, to find the 
grain bushels, square the diameter in feet, divide by 
four, and multiply by height. To find heaped bushels, 
as of apples &c., square diameter, divide by six, and 
multiply by height. If the heap is oblong, multiply 
lenght by breadth, and proceed as above. 



104 TRADE SECRETS. 

Bug Poison. — Alcohol, one pint; gum camphor, two 
ounces; corrosive sublimate, one ounce; mix. 

Insect Destroyer. — Hot alum water is the best insect 
destroyer known. Put the alum into hot water, and 
let it boil until it is dissolved; then apply the solu- 
tion hot with a brush to all cracks, closets, bedsteads 
and other phices where any insects are found. Ants, 
bedbugs, cockroaches and creeping things are killed 
by it, while there is no danger of poisoning the fam- 
ily or injuring the property. 

To Prepare Glue for Ready Use. — To any quantity, of 
glue, use alcohol, one part; water, two parts.; or, use 
common whisky instead of alcohol and water, using 
the alcoholic mixture instead of water to prepare your 
glue. Put your glue and whisky into a bottle, cork it 
and set it aside for three or four days, shaking occasi- 
onally, when it will he ready for use without the aid 
of heat. Glue thus prepared will keep for years, and 
is ready to use at all times, unless it be in very coid 
weather, when it should be set in warm water before 
using. To obviate the difficulty of the stopper getting 
tight. by the glue drying in the mouth of the bottle, 
soak your cork in hot tallow or paraffine wax for a 
short time, and when cold rub off all grease or wax 
and the glue will not adhere to the cork. A strong 
solution of isinglass made in the same way is an ex- 
cellent cement for leather. 

Gum Arabic Starch. — Take two ounces of w^hite gum 
arable powder, put it into a pitcher, and pour on it 
a pint or more of boiling water (according to the de- 
gree of strength you desire), and then, having covered 
it, let it set all night. In the morning pour it care- 
fully from the dregs into a clean bottle, cork it, and 
keep it for use. A tablespoonful of gum water stirred 
into a pint of starch that has been made in the usual 



TRADE SECRETS. 105 

manner, will give lawns (either white, black, or 
printed,) a look of newness, when nothing else can 
restore them after washing. 

Red Ants and Black Ants are vor}" troublesome in 
some sections of the country. On sandy soil especially 
red ants are a great pest, and about the best thing to 
drive them away is to sprinkle air slaked lime around 
their places of resort. To keep them out of sugar, tie 
a small piece of camphor in a cloth and put it in your 
sugar box or barrel, and they will leave at once. 

To Examine the Bottom of a Well. — Take a looking- 
glass and place m such position as to reflect tVie light 
down the well. 

Hair Invigorator. — Bay rum, 2 pints; alcohol, 1 
pint; castor oil, 1 oz. ; carb. ammonia, half-oz. ; tine, 
cantharides, 1 oz. Mix them well. This compound 
will promote the grow^th of the hair, and prevent it 
from falling out. 

To Remove Mildew. — Take two ounces of chloride of 
lime, pour on it a quart of boiling water, then add c> 
quarts of cold w^ater; steep the linen 12 hours, when 
every spot will be extracted. This will be found to 
quite surpass the buttermilk and chalk receipt. 

Carpets rolled up during the hot weather can be 
kept free from moths by wrapping here and there, be- 
tween the folds, pieces of flannel dipped in turpen- 
tine; this is a better plan than peppering, as the 
smell soon goes off when the carpet is laid down again, 
and the inhabitants of the room are not all seized with 
apparently an attack of sudden influenza. 

Preserving Eggs. — Dissolve four ounces of beeswax 
in eight ounces of warm olive oil ; in this put the 
tip of the finger and annoint the egg all around. 
The oil will immediately be absorbed by the shell, 
a.nd the pores filled up by the wax. If kept in 



106 TRADE SECRETS. 

a cool place, the eggs, after two years, will be 
as good as if fresh laid. 

Preserving Botiquets. — When you receive a bouquet, 
sprinkle it lightly with fresh water; then put it into 
a vessel containing some soapsuds, which nourish the 
roots and keep the flowers as good as new. Take the 
bouquet out of the suds every morning, and lay it side- 
ways in fresh water, the stock entering first into the 
water ; keep it there a minute or two, then take it 
out, and sprinkle the flowers lightly by the hand with 
pure water. Replace the bouquet in the soapsuds and 
the flowers will bloom as fresh as when gathered. The 
Ksoapsuds need to be changed every third day. By ob- 
serving these rules, a bouquet may be kept bright and 
beautiful for at least three months, and will last longer 
in a very passable state ; but the attention to the fair 
but frail creatures, as directed above, must be strict- 
ly observed. 

Invisible Cenient. — Dissolve Russian Isinglass in hot 
alcohol, and it will stick firmly broken crockery or 
glass. 

To get up Shirts equal to Neio, wash, blue and dry the 
bosom, collars and cufis ; make a starch with one 
tablespoonful of starch, one teaspoonful of clear, pre- 
pared gum, a lump of sugar and one pinch of salt ; 
mix it with cold water and make it clear and of the 
proper consistency, and stir a wax candle round it 
once or twice ; dip the articles in the starch, squeeze 
them dry, roll them out in a cloth ten minutes and 
then iron them. Collars and cufls of linen are done 
up beautiful in this way. 

Cream- Colored Spanish lace can be cleaned and made 
to look new by rubbing it in dry flour ; rub as if you 
were washing in water. Then take it outdoors and 
shake all the flour out ; if not perfectly clean, repeat 



TRADE 8ECRETS. 1(W 

the rubbing in a little more clean flour. The flour 
must be very thoroughly shaken from the lace, or the 
result will be far from satisfactory. White knitted 
hoods can be cleaned in this way ; babies' socks also 
if only slightly soiled, 

To take Ink out of Linen. — Dip the ink spot in pure 
melted tallow, then wash out the tallow and the ink 
will come out with it. This is said to be unfailing. 

To take Ink-Stains out of a Colored Table-Cover. — Dis- 
solve a teaspoonful of oxalic acid in a teacupful of hot 
water and rub the stained part well with the solution. 

To Clean Feathers from animal oil and disagreeable 
odor often noticed in them. — Make a lime water by 
mixing one pound of fresh slaked lime with three or 
four gallons of water, and let it stand twenty-four 
hours, and pour off" the clear liquor for use. Put the 
feathers into a tub and pour on sufficient clear lime 
water to cover them. When they are thoroughly 
moistened they will sink down. Let them stand in 
the lime water two or three days, and then rinse the 
feathers in clear water and dry them. Sometin:es a 
little chloride of lime is added to the lime water, and 
sometimes sal soda is used in place of lime water. 
When thoroughly dried, the feathers should be 
whipped or beaten till they are loose and nice. Old 
feathers are often cleaned in this way. 

Wa^h for Kid Gloves. — 1 quart deodorized benzine ; 
1 dr. sulphuric ether ; 1 dr. chloroform ; 2 dr. oil of 
wintergreen ; 2 dr. alcohol. Mix all together and wash 
the gloves thoroughly and they will be as nice as when 
new. 

To Remove Fruit Stains. — Wet the stains with javelle 
water before putting them into the wash. This will 
remove the stains entirely. You can buy the javelle 
water at any drug store. 



108 TRADE SECRETS. 

For Cleaning White Kid Gloves. — Wash them in rose 
oil, let them dry, and they will be very nice. 

Hard Soap No. 2. — 5 pounds hard soap; 4 pounds 
sal-soda; 2 oz. borax; 1 oz. aqua ammonia; boil 15 
minutes with 22 quarts water ; to harden, add | pound 
resin. 

Very Good Soft Soap. — Mix 5 pounds potash in 5 gal- 
lons warm soft water ; let stand over night ; in the 
morning boll it, adding 3 pounds grease ; then put all 
in a barrel, adding 15 gallons soft water. 

To Destroy Insects from Bedsteads. — Corrosive sub- 
limate (10 cents worth) dissolved in alcohol and ap- 
ply with a brush once or twice a week will keep them 
away entirely. Use this carefully as it is poison, but 
you will find this a sure preventative. 

Extract of Indigo or Chemlc. — For good chemic or ex- 
tract of Indigo, take of vitriol J pound, and stir fine- 
ly ground Indigo into it, 1 oz. ; continue to stir it 
for J hour; then cover over, and stir three or four 
times daily for two or three days, then put in a 
crumb of saleratus, and stir it up, and if it foams, 
put in more, and stir, and add saleratus as long as 
it foams. The saleratus neutralizes any excess of 
acid; then put into a glass vessel, and cork uptight. 
You will find it improves by standing. 

Formula and Receipt for maling fifteen pounds Soap. 
— Bar soap, 7 pounds; sal-soda, 2 pounds; lime, 1 
pound; alum, 1 oz. ; borax, 2 oz. ; benzine, 1 oz. 

Take 7 pounds of any kind of bar soap (the tougher 
it is the better), cut into thin slices, and put it in 
your kettle or pan; then take two pounds of sal-soda, 
one pound unslacked lime and put it in a tub or bucket 
and pour over it two gallons of boiling water (rain or 
soft water is preferable), stir this well and let it settle ; 
then pour off the clear water or solution into the kettle 



TRADE SECRETS. * 109 

containing the soap; put it on the fire and let it re- 
main there until the soap is all dissolved thoroughly ; 
stir it occasionally, so it will not stick. Dissolve one 
ounce of alum and two ounces of borax in a little wa- 
ter. Stir the soap, and put in the alum and borax 
just as the soap is taken from the fire ; let the soap 
cool a little, and then put in one ounce of benzine and 
stir well (keep your benzine away from fire as it is 
dangerous). When it gets perfectly cold the soap is 
hard and can be cut in any size bars. 

Cologne Water. — Oils of rosemary and lemon, of each 
^ oz. ; oils of bergamott and lavender, each J oz. ; oil 
cinnamon, 16 drops ; oils of cloves and rose, each 30 
drops ; best deodorized alcohol, 5 quarts. Shake sev- 
eral times daily, for a week. 

Hair Oil. — Castor oil, 3 J pints ; alcohol, f pint ; 
citronnella and lavender oil, each J oz. 

Shampoo Mixture for the Hair. — Soft water, 1 quart ; 
sal-soda, 2 oz ; cream tartar, Joz; mix, and apply to 
the hair. 

Oil of Roser^. — Olive oil, J pound; otto of roses, 25 
drops; oil of rosemary, 17 drops; mix. Another, — 
roses (hardly opened), 6 oz. ; olive oil, 8 oz. ; beat 
them together in mortar; let them stand for a few 
da3^s, then express the oil. 

Camphor Ice. — Spermaceti, 3 oz. ; gum camphor, IJ 
oz. ; oil sweet almonds, 8 teaspoonfuls ; heat on the 
stove, in an earthern dish, enough to dissolve it ; ex- 
cellent for chapped hands or lips. 

Hard Soap. — 6 pounds sal-soda; 4 gallon water. Put 
this together and let it come to the boiling point; let 
it settle and pour off; add J pound borax and 6 pounds 
grease ; then pour in dripping tins ; let cool and cut 
in bars. 



110 * TRADE SECRETS. 

To drive aivay Rats. — The secret consists in scatter- 
ing dry chloride of lime, all around their haunts and 
into their holes. Garlic, or dog's tongue (synglossum), 
or the head of a garfish, thrown about their holes, will 
also drive them away. 

E'xcellent Crackers. — Butter, ^ cup ; salt ^ teaspoon ; 
flour, 1 quart. Rub thoroughlj^ together with the 
hand, and wet up with water; beat well, and beat in 
flour to make quite brittle and hard; then pinch off 
pieces, and roll out each cracker by itself. 

Transferring Pictures^ etc. — If you desire to transfer 
pictures, from paper to wood, for re-engraving, soak 
the article in a saturated solution of alcohol, and white 
caustic potash, to soften the ink, then transfer to the 
block under roller pressure. 

To Dye Leather Redy Blue^ or Purple. — For red steep 
it in alum water, then pass it through a warm decoc- 
tion of Brazil wood. Purple, steep the skins in alum 
water, then put it in a warm decoction of logwood. 
Blue, steep it in an indigo vat. 

Whitewash — that will not rub off. — Mix up half a 
pailful of lime, and water, ready to put on the wall ; 
then take J pound of flour, mix it up with water, 
then pour on it boiling water, a sufficient quantity 
to thicken it ; then pour it while hot into the white- 
wash. Stir all w^ell together, and it is ready for 
use. 

Cement for Seamns in i?oo/s.-~Take equal parts of 
white lead, and white sand, and as much oil as will 
make into the consistency of putty; it will in a 
few weeks become as hard as stone. 

Jamaica Rum. — To 22-J gals. New-England rum add 
2\ gals. Jamaica rum ; 1 oz. butyric ether ; J oz. oil 
of carawa}'-, cut with alcohol and color with sugar 
coloring. 



TRADE SECRETS. Ill 

Cement for Leather or Rubber. — Gutta-percha, \ pound ; 
India rubber, 2 oz. ; pitch, 1 oz. ; shellac, \ oz. ; oil, 1 
oz. Melt and use hot. 

To Destroy Moss on Trees. — White wash made of 
quick lime and wood ashes, equal parts; apply with a 
brush. 

Paste for Razors Strop. — Rub a little sweet oil over 
the strop, then apply a little flour of emery evenly 
over the surface. 

Liquorice Lozenges. — Extract of liquorice J pound, 
powdered white sugar, 1 pound. Mix with mucilage 
made with rose water. 

Scotch Butter Candy. — Take J pound of iugar, ^ 
pint of water, dissolve, and boil ; when done add ^ 
tablespoonful of butter and enough lemon juice and 
oil of lemon to flavor. 

Blackberry Wine. — Mash the berries and pour 1 pint 
of boiling water to each half gallon ; let the mixture 
stand 24 hours, stiring occasionally, then strain and 
measure into a keg, adding* 1 pound sugar, and good 
rye whisky, J pint, or best alcohol, J pint, to each 
half gallon. Cork tight, and put away for use. 

Tom and Jerry. — 2J lbs. sugar, 6 eggs, ^ small glass 
of Jamaica rum, J teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, ^ 
teaspoonful of cloves, J teaspoonful allspice. Beat the 
eggs to a stiff froth, and the yolks until they are as thin 
as water; then mix together,and add the spice and rum; 
thicken with sugar until it becomes like a light bat- 
ter. To deal out, take a small bar glass, and to one 
tablespoonful of the above mixture add one wine-glass 
of brandy, and fill the glass with boiling water; grat© 
a little nutmeg on top. 

Peppermint, Rose or Hoar hound Candy. — Take IJ 
pounds of coarse brown sugar; add to it IJ teacupfula 



112 TRADE SECEETS. 

of water and set it over a slow fire for half an hour ; 
add to it a little gum arable, dissolved in hot water, to 
clear it; take off the scum, when any arises. When 
perfectly clear try it by putting a few drops in cold 
water — ^if done it will snap like glass. . Flavor with 
essence of rose or peppermint, or finely powdered hoar- 
hound. Pour it out in buttered paper. 

Chocolate Drops. — To every half-pound of sugar, take 
2\ pts. good chocolate, pulverize it, and mix it into a 
paste with \ pint of water, and set over a slow fire ; 
do not boil the paste too long, or it will granulate and 
be unfit for use. 

Peppermint Drops. — Dissolve finely powdered sugar, 
with a little strong peppermint water, in a saucepan 
with a spout. When it has thoroughly dissolved, add 
an equal quantity of coarse-grained sugar, with a few 
drops of peppermint: stir all together for a few min- 
utes, then drop the mixture on paper and dry it in 
the open air. Lemon, Rose, Vanilla, and other drops 
can be made in the same way. Citric and tartaric 
acid can be used. 

Trappers'' and Anglers'' Secret. — For Game and Fish, 
A few drops of oil of anise, or oil rhodium, on any 
trapper's bait will entice any wild animal into the 
snare trap. India cockle, mixed with flour dough, 
and sprinkled on the surface of still water will intoxi- 
cate fish and render them insensible, when coming up 
to the surface the can be lifted into a tub of fresh 
water to revive them, when the}^ niay be used with- 
out fear. 

To Prepare Cider for Winter 'Use. — To one barrel of 
cider, the same day it is made, take one gallon of milk, 
warm from the cow, add to the milk six oz. of com- 
mon ground mustard, stir well together; then pour 
this mixture in the barrel of cider, and stir well 



"TRADE SECRETS. 113 

With a 'broom-stick, let it stand from five to seven 
days, or until the eider becomes perfectly clear, then 
s-aek it off, and put it into a clean sweet barrel that 
has been well smoked with brimstone inside before 
putting it into the barrel. This is excellent, for I 
have used it for over five years, and find it the 
best way for keeping cider there is. 

Starch Polish. — White wax, ^ oz. ; spermaceti, 1 oz ; 
melt them together slowlj^ and prepare your starch 
in the usual way. For 1 doz, pieces, put into the 
etarch a piece of the polish the size of a pea, more 
or less, according to the amount of pieces you may 
have. Or thick gum solution. — (Made by pouring 
boiling water upon gum arable.) One tablespoonful to 
a pint of starch, gives clothes a beautiful gloss. 

Color for Boot and Shoe Edge. — Alcohol, \ pint; 
tincture of iron, f oz. ; extract logwood, J oz. ; pul- 
verized nutgalls, -J oz. ; soft water, \ pint ; sweet 
oil, J oz. Put all into the alcohol before adding the 
water. This is very fine. 

Edge Blacking for Boots and Shoes, Harness ^ (^c. — 
Soft water, 2 quarts ; extract of logwood, f oz. ; gum 
arabic, 96 grains ; bi-chromate of potash, 48 grains ; 
prussiate of potash, 8 grains. Boil the extract in the 
water 2 minutes; remove from the fire, and stir in 
the others, and it is ready for use. 

To Make the Hair Grow. — 1 dr. oil of bay; J pint 
of alcohol ; mix this together; make ^ gallon sage 
tea; dissolve a small lump borax, strain off the sage 
tea and mix all together. If there is not one-half 
gallon, put in more water. This is good to prevent 
the hair from coming out. For coloring whiskers, put 
in Scents worth oxide of iron; this is spendid. 

To Mend Tinware. — Take a viol two-thirds full of 
muriatic acid, put into it all the chippings of sheet 



114 TRADE SECRETS. 

zinc it will dissolve; then put in a crumb of sal 
ammoniac, and fill up with water. Wet the place 
to be mended with this liquid, put a piece of tin 
over the hole, and apply a spirit lamp, or candle, 
below it, which melts the solder on the tin and 
causes the tin to adhere. 

BrunstvicJc Black for Grates, &c. — Asphaltum, 2J 
pounds ; melt and add boiled oil, 1 pound ; spirts of 
turpentine, J gallon ; mix. 

To Destroy the Effects of Acid on Clothes. — Dampen, 
as soon as possible after exposure to the acid, with 
spirits ammonia ; it will kill the effect at once. 

To Remove Grease Spots in Marble. — Saturate car- 
bonate of magnesia, previously heated, to remove 
every trace of mechanically adhering humidity, (still 
better is freshly calcined, cold magnesia, the so-called 
magnesia usta) with sufficient pure benzine, that it 
imbibes without parting with an excess, which only 
must occur upon being pressed together. Throw a 
sufficient quantit}^ of this matter upon the provok- 
ing grease spot, and rub it upon the place. Per- 
form this operation several times, and the spot will 
have completely dissappeared. 

Blach Varnish, for Coal Buckets. — Asphaltum, 2 
pounds ; lamp-black, \ pound; resin, 1 pound ; spirits 
of turpentine, 2 quarts. Dissolve the asphaltum and 
resin in the turpentine ; then rub up the lampblack 
with linseed oil, only sufficient to form a paste, and 
mix with the others. Use with a brush. 

Fly Paper. — Coat paper with turpentine varnish, 
and oil it, to keep the varnish from drying. 

Polish for Turners Work — Dissolve sandarach, 2 oz,, 
in spirits of wine, 1 pint ; next shave beeswax, 2 oz;, 
and dissolve it in a sufficient quantity of spirits 
turpentine, to make it into a paste; add the former 



TRADE SECRETS. 116 

mixture by degrees to it ; then with a woolen cloth 
apply it to the work while it is in motion in the 
lathe, and with a soft linen rag polish it. It will 
apjDcar as if highly varnished. 

Oil Blacking — water-proof. — Camphene \ pint ; add 
all the India-rubber, it will dissolve; Curriers oil, 
J pint ; tallows 3 J pounds ; lampblack, 1 oz. Mix 
well by heat. 

Bookbinders Varnish. — Shellac, eight parts; gum 
benzoine, three parts; gum mastic, two parts; bruise 
and digest in alcohol, forty-eight parts ; oil of la- 
vender, one-half part. Or, digest shellac, four parts; 
gum mastic, two parts; gum dammen and white 
turpentine, of each, one part; with alcohol (95 per- 
cent), twenty-eight parts. 

Cement for Leather or Rubber Soles and Leather Belt- 
ing. — Gutta-percha, A pound; India rubber, 2oz.; 
pitch, 1 oz. ; shellac, J oz. ; oil, 1 oz. ; melt, and use 
hot. 

To Renew Black Cloth. — Bruised galls, J pound; log- 
wood, 1 pound; green vitriol, J pound; water, 2h qts. 
Boil about two hours, then strain and it is ready for 
use. 

Cenient for Broken Marble or Stone. — Gum arabic J 
pound; make into a thick mucilage; add to it pow- 
dered plaster of Paris, f pounds; sifted quick lime, 
2^ oz. ; mix all together. Heat the marble before 
applying. This is a very powerful Cement. 

Blue Color for Ceilings. — Boil for 3 hours 1 pound 
blue vitriol, and -J pound of the best whiting, in 
about 3 quarts water; stir it frequently while boil- 
ing, .and also on taking it oft' the fire. When quite 
cold pour off the blue liquid, then mix the cake of 
color with 1 good size ; use it v/ith a brush the same 
manner as whitewash, for walls or ceilings. 



To Kill t'ermin on Plants or Animals. — ?our I gal- 
lon of boiling water on 1 pound tobacco leaves; strairs 
it in twenty minutes. This is a sure cure. 

Grafting Wax. — Rosin, 1 pound ; bees-wax, I poundf- 
with lard or taMoW enough to soften, so it can be 
applieel with the hancf. 

Renew old Orchards — earl}^ in the spring.^-Plough 
the entire orchard, and enrich the whole soil with aj 
good dressing of compost of manure, swamp-muck^, 
and lime; scrape off the old bark wdtJi a sharp hoe y 
apply half a bushel of lime, and the same of ground 
charcoal round each tree. Then apply strong soap- 
suds on the trunks and limbs, as high as you cart 
reach. When in full bloom, throw over them a lot- 
of fine slacked lime, and you WiH liave an abun- 
dance of fruit. 

To Keep Milh from Sounng.-^Vut into the milk ^ 
small quantity of carbonate of magnesia. The above' 
will also sweeten sour milk. 

To Destroy Moths' or Millers from Bees.^^ldike a deep 
white plate, place it on the top of the hive, and fill it 
half-full of sweetened vinegar. This is a sure way 
to destroy them. 

To Remove Walnut and Fruit Stains from the Fingers, 
— Dip them in strong tea, rubbing the nails with 
it with a nail l)rush } wash in warm water ; the^ 
stains come out instantly. 

Rose fKa^^r.— Put fresh gathered roses into a jar 
with some water ; add twelve drops oil of vitrol,. 
and in a short time the v ater will assume the color 
and scent of the re &ss. 

Hoiteheepefs should kuow that a small piece of pa- 
per or linen, moistened with spirits of turpentine,- 
and put into a bureau or wardrobe, for a single day^ 



TRADE SECRJifS. 11? 

two ot three times a year is a sufficient pteserVativd 
against moths. 

A JSit of Glue dissolved in skim-milk and wateir 
will restore old crape. 

To Make Linen Collars and Cliffs Stiff and Bright— 
Mix wheatert starch in cold water, dip in the ar^ 
tides, let them remain about ten minutes before^ 
Ironing ; they become glossy and stiff as new. 

Paste that v)ill Keep d Year. — Dissolve a teaspoon-* 
ful of alum in a quart of warm water. When cold, 
Istir in as much flour as will give it the consistency 
of thick cream, being particular to beat up all ihd 
lumps ; stir in a little powdered rosin, and throw in 
half a dozen cloves, to give a pleasant odor. Have 
on the fire a teacupful of boiling water ; pour the 
flour mixture into it, stirring well all the time. In 
a few minutes it will be of proper consistency. Pour 
it into an earthen or china vessel ■ let it cool ; lay 
a cover on and put it in a cool place. When needed 
for use, take out a portion and soften it with warm 
Water. Paste thus made will last twelve months. It 
is better than gUm, as it does not gloss the paper j 
and can be written upon. 

To Wash Book Muslins^ &€. — The following recipe 
tnay be used for lawn, book muslin dresses, fichus, 
etc. Boil two quarts of bran in water for half an 
hour, let it cool, then strain it, and mix the liquor 
with the water in which the things are to be washed. 
They will only requil^e rinsing, as the bran will 
stiffen them sufficiently. For colored muslins, rice 
water is very good, as it helps to preserve the color j 
but, although it makes white muslins clear, it some- 
times gives them a yellow tinge. When used, it 
should previously be boiled in the proportion of one 



118 TRADE SECRETS. 

pound of rice to one gallon of water. No soap is re- 
quired. 

To Clean Hair. — Take one ounce of borax and half 
an ounce of camphor, powdered fine, and dissolve 
in one quart of boiling water ; when cool," the solu- 
tion will be fit for use, and with it you should damp 
the hair frequently. This wash effectually cleanses, 
beautifies and strengthens the hair, preserves 
the color, and prevents it from falling. The cam- 
phor will, after being dissolved, form into lumps 
again, but that will be of no consequence, as the wa- 
ter will have been sufficiently impregnated. 

Rice-Cement. — Which is made by mixing rice-flour 
intimately with cold water and then gently boiling 
it — forms a beautifully white preparation and dries 
nearly transparent ; it is capable of bearing a very 
high polish, and is very durable ; it is in every 
respect far superior to the common paste made with 
wheat flour or starch ; it may be formed also into a 
plastic clay. 

White Hands. — The best means to *'whi!en red 
hands" is to wear a pair of cosmetic gloves thus pre- 
pared : "Fresh eggs, two ; oil of sweet almonds, two 
teaspoonfuls ; rose-water, one ounce ; tincture of ben- 
zine, thirty-six grains. First beat the eggs and oil 
together, and then add the rose-water and tincture. 
Well daub a pair of kid gloves with the mixture 
on the inside, and wear them during the night. 

To Soften the Hands. — Half a pound of mutton tal- 
low, one ounce of camphor gum, and one ounce gly- 
cerine ; melt, and when thoroughly mixed, set away 
to cool. Rub the hands with this at night. It will 
render them white, smooth, and soft. 

To Renew Gilt Frames. — Take the white of two or 
three eggs, and one ounce of soda, or chloride of pot- 



TRADE SECRETS. 119 

ash ; mix well. Clean the frames, then go over them 
with a soft brash dipped in the mixture, and they 
will aj^pear equal to new. 

Renew Old Oil Paintings. — The blackened lights of 
old pictures may be instantly restored to their ori- 
ginal hue by touching them with dentoxide of hy- 
drogen; diluted by six or seven times its weight of 
water. The part must be afterward washed with a 
clean sponge and water. 

Old and faded daguerreotypes will often become as 
bright as new, if placed in a weak solution of evan- 
ide of potassium. 

To Remoae Grease Spots from Paper. — First dampen 
with a camels hair brush dipped in rectified spirits 
of turpentine, which, when dry, is completely re- 
moved, by applying a little alcohol. 

Rubber Stamp Ink. — The following proportions give 
an excellent rubber stamp ink, which, while not 
drying up on the pad, Avill yet not readily smear 
when not impressed upon the paper; aniline red 
(violet), 90 grains ; boiling distilled water, 1 ounce ; 
glycerine, half a teaspoonful ; treacle, half as much 
as glycerine. The crystals of the violet dye to be 
powdered and rubbed up with the boiling water, 
and the other ingredients stirred in. 

In Drilling Glass stick a piece of stiff clay or put- 
ty on the part you wish to make the hole. Make 
a hole in the putty the size you want the hole, 
reaching to the glass of course. Into this hole pour 
a little molten lead, when, unless it is very thick 
glass, the piece will immediately drop out. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



r 





014 184 252 3 f ■ 



.ddress all communications to JOHN G. VICKERS & CO., 
Publishers of Trade Secrets, Columbus, Ohio. 



^, 




